What Is the Model Code of Conduct in India?

India’s Model Code of Conduct — in Hindi, आदर्श चुनाव आचार संहिता — is a set of norms that political parties and candidates follow once an election is in sight. The Election Commission of India issues the code and watches it so that a party already in office cannot tilt the campaign with public money, official vehicles, or last-minute schemes.

It is short, written in plain language, and not a statute. A court case can outlast a campaign. A direction from the Commission can land the same week a minister announces a new grant.

This guide covers what the code is, how it grew from a Kerala experiment in 1960, when it switches on, and who it binds. The eight parts are in The Eight Parts of India’s Model Code of Conduct. Breaches, notices, and the cVIGIL app are in How the Model Code of Conduct Is Enforced.

A code of conduct, not a criminal statute#

The Commission’s 2019 Manual on Model Code of Conduct defines the code as norms for the guidance of political parties and candidates during the election period, evolved with the consensus of those parties. The Commission’s job is to see that parties — including the ruling party — and candidates observe it, so that nobody disturbs a level playing field.

Two ideas sit inside that definition. The code is consensual: parties accepted it, and public opinion backs the Commission when a breach is obvious. It is also operational: from the moment the schedule is announced, ministers, governments, and publicly funded bodies are told to stop using the state’s resources as campaign tools.

The code does not replace the Representation of the People Act, 1951, or the criminal law on bribery, intimidation, and hate speech. Several of its “don’ts” already exist as corrupt practices or electoral offences. The rest are enforced as Commission directions under Article 324 of the Constitution, which gives the ECI superintendence, direction, and control of elections.

Why a separate code was needed#

The Constitution was silent on political parties until the Tenth Schedule arrived in 1985 to deal with defections. Campaigns, meanwhile, were already uneven. A party in government could inaugurate projects, buy advertisements with public funds, and travel in official cars while rivals hired their own.

A statute listing every unfair advantage would be slow to pass and slower to apply. Parties helped write a shorter list: no communal appeals, no personal mud-slinging, no wrecking of rival meetings, and — from 1979 — no use of the government as a campaign machine. Routine administration continues. New vote-facing announcements do not.

How the code grew#

The Commission’s 2019 manual gives this history.

February 1960, Kerala. For the Assembly election, leading parties approved a draft at a meeting called by the state government. It covered meetings, processions, speeches, slogans, posters, and placards. The Commission credits Kerala with the idea.

1962. For the Lok Sabha election and simultaneous Assembly polls, the Commission circulated that code to recognised parties. Parties largely followed it.

1966–72. Kerala, Madras (later Tamil Nadu), West Bengal, and Andhra Pradesh used similar drafts. Tamil Nadu’s version was a ten-point code with a standing committee to hear complaints. In 1968–69 and again in 1971–72, the Commission circulated an appeal asking parties to observe a minimum code during campaigning.

1 January 1974. A revised code was issued. Chief Electoral Officers were told to form district standing committees, chaired by the Collector, to watch violations.

12 September 1979. A conference of parties agreed that ruling parties should be covered. Before the October 1979 Lok Sabha election, the Commission issued a code in seven parts. Part VII was devoted to the party in power at the Centre and in the states. The manual still calls that part the flesh and blood of the code.

Through the 1980s the code was still, in the Commission’s words, closer to an appeal than to a sanction. The Commission asked the Union Government to give Part VII statutory backing. No such law was passed.

1991. The code was amplified and re-issued in its 1979 shape, with important changes to Part VII. The Commission treated it as active from the announcement of the schedule. Governments wanted it to start only at the formal notification.

1994–1997. Andhra Pradesh challenged the earlier start. The case reached the Supreme Court without a final ruling. In Harbans Singh Jalal v. Union of India, the Punjab and Haryana High Court, on 27 May 1997, upheld the Commission’s direction that the code for the Punjab Assembly election applied from the announcement. The Centre sought special leave. The Supreme Court did not settle the point.

16 April 2001. The Commission and the Central Government agreed that the code comes into force when the schedule is announced, with a rider: the announcement shall not ordinarily be made more than three weeks before notification. Completed projects may be inaugurated, and foundation stones laid, by civil servants rather than ministers, so public works do not stall. Part VII was amended to say so.

February 2014. Part VIII, on manifestos, was added after the Supreme Court’s judgment of 5 July 2013 in S. Subramaniam Balaji v. Government of Tamil Nadu. The Court asked the Commission to frame manifesto guidelines with recognised parties.

When it starts and when it ends#

The code operates from the time and day the Commission announces the schedule. Clause (vi) of Part VII says that from that moment ministers and other authorities shall not do certain things. The Supreme Court noted the same start date in Subramaniam Balaji.

For a general election to the Lok Sabha or a State Assembly, it remains until the election process in the notification is complete, including the declaration of results. For a bye-election, it ends when the Returning Officer declares the result.

Part VIII can apply even earlier. If a party issues a manifesto before the schedule is announced, the manifesto guidelines already attach.

A caretaker government after a premature dissolution is a special case. Drawing on S.R. Bommai v. Union of India (1994) — a caretaker government should stick to day-to-day administration and avoid major policy decisions — the Commission has directed that Part VII applies at once in that state. It binds the caretaker government and the Centre on matters concerning that state, until the new Assembly election is complete.

Where it applies, and to whom#

The code covers elections to the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies, and Legislative Council elections from local-body, graduates’, and teachers’ constituencies.

• A Lok Sabha general election puts it in force across India.
• A State Assembly general election puts it in force throughout that state.
• A bye-election is narrower: the district or districts that contain the constituency. If the constituency is in a state capital, metropolitan city, or municipal corporation, the Commission has limited the code to that Assembly segment, so the rest of the district is not frozen. Otherwise the whole district or districts are covered.

The obvious addressees are parties, candidates, and their workers. Part VII adds ministers and the party in power. The Commission has also applied the code to bodies funded wholly or partly by the Centre or a state — development authorities, transport corporations, electricity bodies, and similar agencies. Advertisements of their achievements, or new subsidies and tariffs, during the code period can be a violation.

People who are not candidates are watched too. Social, cultural, or religious organisations that appeal to voters for or against a party can be asked for an undertaking, and their programmes can be videographed. Invoking religion, attacking private life, or spending to promote a candidate without written authority can breach the code and, where the facts fit, the 1951 Act or criminal law.

The code is an election-period instrument. In a 2010 controversy over statues built with public funds, the Commission said it does not normally take cognisance of Model Code allegations before an election is announced. Other laws may still apply.

What it protects#

The object, as the courts and the Commission have put it, is that a party in power should not spend its capacity to do public good on the eve of an election in order to gain at the polls. A scheme announced and budgeted earlier can continue. A fresh cash transfer unveiled the morning after the schedule is the problem Part VII is written to catch.

Instructions on advertisements, social media, and defacement are updated each election even when the eight-part text stays stable. Read the current ECI directions before you treat a scheme or a speech as cleared.

A practical next step#

Read the eight parts next, then how the code is enforced.

If you keep the official manual as a PDF for a district team, a smaller file is easier to email. You can compress a PDF in the browser when a scanned circular is too large to send.

FAQ#

Is the Model Code of Conduct a law?#

No. The Commission states that it is not a statutory document. Some prohibitions overlap with the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and with criminal law. The rest are Commission directions under Article 324.

Does it apply only to the ruling party?#

No. General conduct, meetings, processions, polling-day behaviour, and manifesto guidelines apply to every party and candidate. Part VII adds limits on ministers and governments, because they alone control the official machinery.

Can a state ignore the code until notification?#

No. Since the agreement of 16 April 2001, the code runs from the announcement of the schedule. That announcement is not ordinarily made more than three weeks before notification.

Does the code stop all government work?#

No. Day-to-day administration continues. What stops is the use of official position, transport, accommodation, and fresh financial or project announcements to improve a party’s chances. Civil servants may inaugurate completed works so the public is not left waiting.