Jagdeep Chhokar, the co-founder of the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) and one of the people behind some of the historic electoral reforms in India, died on Friday aged 81. Chhokar was a lawyer, engineer as well as a retired professor of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, and started his career with Indian Railways before committing himself to the work of the Indian people in general.
ADR under his leadership was synonymous with legal struggles that changed Indian democracy. Two of its historic wins included the case of Union of India vs ADR in 2002, where the Supreme Court allowed voters to be informed of the criminal, financial, and educational background of their candidates. In 2013, an electronic voting machine in the case of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties vs the Union of India was given a judgment in which the court added the possibility of nonetheless, not voting, known as the None of the Above (NOTA) feature. In the same year, convicted lawmakers sentenced to more than two years were disqualified immediately, due to the Lily Thomas case.
ADR was one petitioners in the electoral bonds case, more recently, when the Supreme Court invalidated the 2018 political-funding scheme as unconstitutional. In another case, ADR also appealed against the Election Commission notice about the electoral roll revision in Bihar; the court found that Aadhaar should be accepted as a valid document to include voters in the electoral roll.
In addition to ADR, Chhokar was also the original chairperson of Aajeevika Bureau, a civil society organisation that tackled the problems of the internal migrant workers in India.
The tributes came in throughout the nation. Former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi recalled how Chhokar changed the opinion of ADRs being opponents of the Election Commission to partners. India Swaraj leader Yogendra Yadav called him a selfless hero of democracy, because he was instrumental in agitating to force candidates to reveal of assets and criminal records.
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