Supreme Court Seeks Response from ECI on Plea to Introduce E-Voting to Enhance Citizen’s Access to Right to Vote

On Thursday, the Apex Court issued a notice on a petition seeking to facilitate e-voting. According to the petitioner, a decentralised voting system make the voting mechanism more accessible to citizens.

The Bench of Chief Justice S.A. Bobde, Justices A.S. Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanian has sought reply from the Election Commission of India and the Central Government. K. Sathyan has lodged the petition. Sathyan also sought to strike down Section 60 (C) of the Representation of People Act, 1951, to the degree that it does not appear to be unfair, unconstitutional, illegal and unreasonable in any other manner.

The petitioner also sought guidance from the government to take steps to ensure that all registered voters stationed outside the constituency have access to voting, such as internal migrant workers and employees, business personnel and students. The petitioner also stressed the need to ensure free and fair election conducted through the use of technological advances to avoid electoral malpractice.

The petitioner referred to the definition of the term 'ordinarily resident' mentioned under section 20 of the Representation of People Act, 1950. The term ordinarily resident is used to mean persons who are entitled to enrol as voters in the electoral roll. Moulding the definition to suit the requirements of the current times demands pragmatic understanding.

The vast majority of the population who now reside temporarily away from their constituency, for many reasons including profession, occupation, trade, business, education, marriage etc are disentitled from the freedom to cast their vote in violation of their fundamental right of expression under Article 19(1)(a).”

Accordingly, the failure to include the categories of persons stationed outside their constituency, the category of persons enjoying the right to vote by postal ballot, is arbitrary and violates their fundamental rights under Article 14, Article 19(1)(a), Article 19(1)(d), Article 19(1)(g) and Article 21 and the right to vote under Article 326.