Article 324 is a fundamental provision in the Constitution of India, located in Part XV (Elections), which establishes the Election Commission of India (ECI). Its objective, conceived during the drafting of the Constitution, was to create an independent constitutional authority to ensure free, fair, and democratic elections. The provision was discussed as Draft Article 289 on June 15 and 16, 1949, and was designed to centralize the election machinery.
Article 324(1) vests the superintendence, direction, and control of the preparation of electoral rolls and the conduct of all elections to Parliament, the Legislature of every State, and the offices of the President and Vice-President in the ECI. Article 324(2) specifies that the ECI shall consist of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and other Election Commissioners, if any, as the President may fix. The ECI's wide discretionary powers to ensure free and fair elections were affirmed by the Supreme Court in Mohinder Singh Gill v. CEC (1978).
A key mechanism for the ECI's independence is found in Article 324(5), which states that the CEC can only be removed from office in the like manner and on the like grounds as a Judge of the Supreme Court. However, other Election Commissioners or Regional Commissioners can be removed solely on the recommendation of the CEC. The composition of the ECI changed from a one-member body to a multi-member body in 1989 under Article 324(2), a change that was upheld in S.S. Dhanoa v. Union of India (1991).
Article 324 connects directly to the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and other articles in Part XV, such as Article 329, which bars court interference in electoral matters except through an election petition. A significant historical change occurred with the Constitution (Nineteenth Amendment) Act, 1966, which eliminated the provision for Election Tribunals that was originally in Article 324(1), transferring the jurisdiction over election petitions to the High Courts.