New Delhi, August 17
The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a PIL seeking voting rights for non-resident Indians (NRIs).
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana – which asked the Centre and the EC to respond to the PIL filed by the Kerala Pravasi Association – clubbed it with other pending cases on the issue.
The petitioner has sought directions to the Central Government to permit Indian citizens residing outside India to exercise their franchise under Section 20A of the Representation of the People Act (RPA), 1950 from their place residence or employment.
It sought alternative options/external modes to be provided to citizens residing outside India for exercising their right to vote without insisting on their physical presence at their respective polling stations in India on the day of polling.
While Section 20A of the RPA provides special provisions for citizens of India residing outside India for exercising their franchise, the purpose and object of the legislation stands defeated as there is no corresponding provisions in the Rules framed under the Act to allow them to vote without being physically present at the polling stations of their respective constituencies in India, the petitioner submitted.
The RPA provision which required NRIs to be physically present in their constituencies to cast vote went against fundamental rights under Article 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution, the Association submitted.
On February 18, 2021, the top court had issued notices to the Centre and the Election Commission on another PIL filed by one K Sathyan seeking exercise of franchise through a system of postal ballots or e-voting for people stationed outside their constituency, including NRIs.
Contending that the electoral laws needed to catch up with modern technology, Sathyam had demanded introduction of e-voting by means of a secured remote electronic voting system which would allow citizens to cast their vote virtually. He sought voting rights for students, NRIs and other people stationed outside their constituency at the time of elections. An OTP-based system should be evolved for fault free identification of voters and CCTVs should be installed in all polling booths across India, he submitted.
“Several sections of voters including internal migrant labourers, employees, students and business professionals stationed outside the constituency as well as Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and overseas migrant labourers on account of their profession, occupation, education, trade, business, marriage etc have been alienated from the electoral process for very long,” the petition read.
Sathyan had urged the top court to issue necessary directions to ensure a fair election process by providing double databases for transactions at the central local levels to reduce chances of data and Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) manipulation.
Maintaining that logistic concerns cannot curtail voting rights, Sathyam had submitted that insistence on physical presence violated the right to equality. Exclusion of a significant part of the population stationed outside their constituencies amounted to deprivation of the right to practice democratic process, he contended.
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