Give NRIs e-voting rights now: Angry Supreme Court admonishes Centre

Source – indiatoday.intoday.in

In a big leap towards permitting a 25 million-strong NRI population to vote in Indian elections from abroad, the Supreme Court on Friday said it had to be done at any cost, and asked the Modi government to decide within one week how it plans to go about it.

A bench of chief justice J S Khehar and justice D Y Chandrachud was angry the government had not made the necessary amendments (of the Act or Rules) in the Representation Of Peoples Act to allow the voting by NRIs, despite repeated assurances to the court.

“This is a petition of 2014. Every year you keep saying ‘we will amend’. You said this in 2014, 15, 16 and again … this is not the way your government runs,” an angry CJI Khehar told the Central government’s counsel.

The court was hearing PILs filed by two NRIs – Shamsheer V P, an NRI from Kerala, and Nagender Chindam, Chairman of the UK-based Pravasi Bharat – seeking the voting rights. “The US lets you vote from space. Texas laws have allowed astronauts the right to vote when on a space mission. Here, NRIs are pleading for it,” said Chindam.

Until now, due to the high cost of travel and time involved, only a minuscule population of NRIs came to India to cast vote. E-voting will allow them to vote without having to fly during elections.

In e-voting, a blank postal ballot paper is emailed to the voter, who has to then fill it and mail it by post to their constituency. At a previous hearing, the government had accepted the Election Commission’s (EC) view that the option of voting through an epostal ballot system could be considered for the NRIs.

In December 2016, the Centre had said it accepted the EC’s proposal in this regard, claimed it formulated a draft bill, and told the court that steps are being taken to get the Representation of People Act 1951 amended. But things have not moved since.