Report No. 255

Chapter VIII: Election Expenses and Maintenance of Accounts

77. Account of election expenses and maximum thereof.- (1) Every candidate at an election shall, either by himself or by his election agent, keep a separate and correct account of all expenditure in connection with the election incurred or authorized by him or by his election agent between the date on which he has been nominated of notification of such election and the date of declaration of the result thereof, both dates inclusive.

Explanation 1.- For the removal of doubts, it is hereby declared that-

(a) the expenditure incurred by leaders of a political party on account of travel by air or by any other means of transport for propagating programme of the political party shall not be deemed to be the expenditure in connection with the election incurred or authorised by a candidate of that political party or his election agent for the purposes of this sub-section.

(b) any expenditure incurred in respect of any arrangements made, facilities provided or any other act or thing done by any person in the service of the Government and belonging to any of the classes mentioned in clause (7) of section 123 in the discharge or purported discharge of his official duty as mentioned in the proviso to that clause shall not be deemed to be expenditure in connection with the election incurred or authorised by a candidate or by his election agent for the purposes of this sub-section.

Explanation 2.- For the purposes of clause (a) of Explanation 1, the expression "leaders of a political party", in respect of any election, means,-

(i) where such political party is a recognised political party, such persons not exceeding forty in number, and

(ii) where such political party is other than a recognised political party, such persons not exceeding twenty in number, whose names have been communicated to the Election Commission and the Chief Electoral Officers of the States by the political party to be leaders for the purposes of such election, within a period of seven days from the date of the notification for such election published in the Gazette of India or Official Gazette of the State, as the case may be, under this Act:

Provided that a political party may, in the case where any of the persons referred to in clause (i) or, as the case may be, in clause (ii) dies or ceases to be a member of such political party, by further communication to the Election Commission and the Chief Electoral Officers of the States, substitute new name, during the period ending immediately before forty-eight hours ending with the hour fixed for the conclusion of the last poll for such election, for the name of such person died or ceased to be a member, for the purposes of designating the new leader in his place.

(2) The account shall contain such particulars, as may be prescribed.

(3) The total of the said expenditure shall not exceed such amount as may be prescribed.

77A. Account of contributions received.- Every candidate at an election shall, either by himself or by his election agent, also keep an account of the following particulars in respect of the donations or contributions received by the candidate after the date of notification of election, namely.-

(a) the amount of contribution received by the candidate from his party for the election;

(b) the amount of contribution received by the candidate from--

(i) any person;

(ii) any company, not being a government company

(c) the name, address and PAN card details, if applicable, of the donor in sub-clause (b) above;

(d) the nature of each contribution, in particular, whether it is:

(i) cash;

(ii) cheque; or

(iii) gifts in kind;

(e) the date on which the contribution was received.

Explanation. All contributions by a political party to its candidate shall be made by a crossed account payee cheque or draft or bank transfer.

78. Lodging of account with the district election officer.- (1) Every contesting candidate at an election shall, within thirty days from the date of election of the returned candidate or, if there are more than one returned candidate at the election and the dates of their election are different, the later of those two dates, lodge with the district election officer an account of his election expenses and contribution reports which shall be a true copy of the account kept by him or by his election agent under section 77 and section 77A respectively.

78A. Disclosure of account submitted by contesting candidates.- (1) The district election officer shall make publicly available, on his website, the accounts of election expenses and contribution reports submitted by every contesting candidate or their election agent under section 78.

(2) The district election officer shall also keep these reports on file for three years after their submission and shall make them available for public inspection on the payment of a prescribed fee under Rule 88 of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961.