The Eight Parts of India’s Model Code of Conduct
The Model Code of Conduct (आदर्श चुनाव आचार संहिता) is a short document in eight parts. Parts I to VI tell every party and candidate how to campaign. Part VII tells governments and ministers what they must not do with public office. Part VIII, added in February 2014, tells parties how to write and when to release manifestos.
The Election Commission’s March 2019 manual calls Part VII the flesh and blood of the code. The other parts still decide whether a procession or a polling station stays peaceful.
For the history and the start date, see What Is the Model Code of Conduct in India?. For notices, campaign bans, and cVIGIL, see How the Model Code of Conduct Is Enforced.
Part I: General conduct#
Part I sets minimum standards for parties, candidates, workers, and supporters.
Criticism of other parties should stay on policy, programme, past record, and work. Attacks on private life, and false statements calculated to hurt a rival, are out. So is activity that aggravates differences or creates hatred between castes, communities, or religious and linguistic groups. Appeals to caste or communal feelings for votes are barred. Mosques, churches, temples, and other places of worship are not campaign stages. Bribery and intimidation of voters are barred.
Parties are also told not to obstruct each other: no breaking up of a rival meeting, no tearing down of its posters, no procession routed through a place where another party is holding a meeting. Demonstrations that block traffic or ordinary public life are not a campaign method under the code.
Several of these lines are also law. The 2019 manual maps them onto the Representation of the People Act, 1951: promoting enmity as a corrupt practice under Section 123(3A); appeal to religion, race, caste, community, or language under Section 123(3), with a related offence in Section 125; bribery under Section 123(1). The code states the standard in campaign language. The Act supplies the court case where the facts amount to a corrupt practice or an offence.
Parts II and III: Meetings and processions#
For meetings, the party or candidate informs the local police of the venue and time in advance, follows permission and prohibitory orders, and cooperates on loudspeakers and routes.
For processions, the route and time are settled with the police. If two processions meet, the police decide who waits. Articles that can be used as weapons do not belong, and the rules are applied against provocation, including burning effigies of other parties’ members. Disrupting a rival meeting or procession can also be an electoral offence under Section 127 of the 1951 Act.
Parts IV and V: Polling day and the booth#
Part IV asks parties to cooperate with officers, avoid unnecessary crowds near polling stations, and not serve or distribute liquor on polling day or in the 48 hours before it. A slip may help a voter find their name on the roll. It should not carry the candidate’s name, photograph, symbol, or party name as a last-minute advertisement at the gate.
Part V limits who may enter the booth to voters and the people the law and the Commission authorise: polling staff, and the candidate’s election agent or polling agent within the permitted number. Campaign badges and unauthorised persons stay out.
Two statutory rules sit beside these parts and are often confused with them:
- Section 130 makes canvassing within 100 metres of a polling station an electoral offence.
- Section 126(1) makes it an offence to hold public meetings in the 48 hours ending with the hour fixed for the close of poll. That silence period also restricts election matter on television and similar media.
Transporting voters to and from the polling station, except in the limited ways the law allows, is a corrupt practice under Section 123(5) and an electoral offence under Section 133.
Part VI: Observers#
Parties and candidates should take code complaints to the observers the Commission appoints, so a problem can be fixed during the election. Observers are not the police and not the Returning Officer. They are a channel that does not belong to the state government.
Part VII: The party in power#
Part VII applies to the party in power at the Centre and in the states. The Commission’s definition is blunt: no action should be taken close to the announcement of elections in order to gain from it at the polls.
Official tours are not campaign tours. Ministers do not combine an official visit with electioneering. Government transport — including vehicles of public-sector and local bodies funded with public money — is not used for campaigning. Official staff do not provide protocol for political programmes. Government guest houses and public places are not monopolised so that other parties cannot use them.
No new electoral sweets from the exchequer. From the announcement, ministers and other authorities do not announce new schemes, financial grants, or concessions, lay foundation stones, or promise projects in order to influence voters. Advertisements of achievements at public cost stop. Discretionary funds are not used for payments that look like election inducements. Fresh releases from MPs’ and MLAs’ local-area development funds are under the same freeze.
Work already in motion is different from a new announcement. The 2001 agreement, written into the code, allows civil servants — not ministers — to inaugurate completed projects or lay foundation stones, so a finished road is not held hostage to the campaign calendar.
Some decisions need clearance. Policy announcements, tax changes, and financial relief go to the Commission — through the Cabinet Secretariat at the Centre, or a Chief Secretary’s Screening Committee in the state — where they can affect the level playing field. The Reserve Bank may continue monetary-policy decisions. Routine budgets can be presented. Vote-facing waivers announced because an election is close are what collide with Part VII.
Separately, the Commission issues transfer guidelines before a general election: officers connected with the poll, including police, who are in their home district or who have spent a long tenure there, are moved. The aim is a neutral machinery.
Publicly funded bodies sit inside this fence. A transport corporation that advertises its “achievements” during the code period can be treated as violating it.
Part VIII: Election manifestos#
On 5 July 2013, in S. Subramaniam Balaji v. Government of Tamil Nadu, the Supreme Court held that the 1951 Act did not directly govern manifesto contents. It directed the Commission to frame guidelines with recognised parties, as it had done for meetings, polling day, and the party in power.
Part VIII was added in February 2014. The guidelines say:
- A manifesto shall not contain anything repugnant to the ideals and principles of the Constitution, and it shall match the letter and spirit of the rest of the code.
- The Directive Principles allow welfare measures, so promising welfare is not by itself objectionable. Parties should avoid promises likely to vitiate the purity of the election or to exert undue influence on voters.
- Manifestos should reflect the rationale for the promises and broadly indicate how the money will be found. Trust should be sought only on promises that can be fulfilled.
- A manifesto is not released in the prohibitory period under Section 126 — the 48 hours ending with the close of poll.
Part VIII can apply before announcement day if a party releases a manifesto early. The guidelines do not ban welfare. They ask for constitutional consistency, a reason, a rough means of finance, and silence in the last 48 hours. Whether a particular promise “exerts undue influence” is argued at every election. The text is a standard, not a price list of permitted freebies.
How the parts fit a real calendar#
| Part | Who it mainly binds | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| I | All parties, candidates, workers | Policy criticism, not hate, bribery, or personal slander |
| II | Parties and candidates | Meetings with police notice |
| III | Parties and candidates | Processions without clashes |
| IV | Parties and candidates | Polling-day conduct, including liquor and crowds |
| V | Parties and candidates | Who may be inside the booth |
| VI | Parties and candidates | Complaints to Commission observers |
| VII | Ministers and governments | No official machinery or fresh schemes as campaign tools |
| VIII | Parties issuing manifestos | Constitution, rationale, finance, and timing |
From the announcement, Part VII is already on. From notification until 48 hours before the close of poll, all eight parts run with the 1951 Act. In those last 48 hours, public meetings, electronic election ads, and new manifestos stop, and Parts IV and V govern the booth.
A speech can breach Part I and Section 123 together. A convoy can breach Part VII without being a crime. How the Commission acts on that split is in How the Model Code of Conduct Is Enforced.
A practical next step#
Keep the current Commission directions with your notes. When a circular is a large scan, compress the PDF before you send it on, or merge PDFs if the code, the latest letter to chief secretaries, and your own checklist should travel as one file.
FAQ#
Which part stops a new government scheme?#
Part VII. From the announcement, ministers and other authorities are not to announce financial grants, new projects, or concessions that can influence voters. A clearance route exists for genuine governmental business.
Can civil servants inaugurate a finished project?#
Yes. The agreement of 16 April 2001, written into Part VII, allows civil servants to inaugurate completed projects or lay foundation stones. Ministers and political functionaries do not do that as a campaign event.
Does Part VIII ban freebies?#
It does not ban welfare promises. It requires respect for the Constitution and the rest of the code, a rationale and a broad means of finance, and a ban on release during the 48-hour silence period. Promises that vitiate the election or unduly influence voters are the ones the guideline tells parties to avoid.