The Supreme Court of India(SCI) on Friday Sep 27,2013 said that for a vibrant democracy the voter has the right to negative voting by rejecting all the candidates in fray by exercising the option of None of the Above (NOTA) in EVMs and ballot papers
The SC Bench of Chief Justice P.Sathasivam, Justice Ranjana
Prakash Desai and Justice Ranjan Gogoi said that negative voting would
gradually lead to systemic changes as political parties will have to
respect the will of the people in selecting their candidates.
Pronouncing the judgment, Chief Justice Sathasivam said the mechanism of
negative voting is necessary and vibrant part of democracy
Background of the SC Direction to ECI
The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) had moved theSC in 2004 with a plea that voters should have a right to negative vote,
saying that it does not want to vote any of the candidates listed in
EVM
and had sought directions to Election Commission (EC) to make provision
in the EVMs providing option “None of the Above” and the right to say
NOTA should be kept secret
The SC Bench of Justice B.N.Agrawal (since retired) and Justice G.S.Singhvi by
their Feb 23, 2009 judgment while referring the matter to a larger bench
had framed two questions to examine -
“whether the right of
voter to exercise his choice for the candidate is a necessary
concomitant of the voter’s freedom of expression guaranteed under
Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution”
“We are further of the view that width and amplitude of the power of the
(Election) Commission under Article 324 needs further consideration by a
larger Bench in the light of the (earlier) judgments of this court
whereby the elector’s right to be informed about the assets and
antecedents of the persons seeking election to the legislature has been
duly recognized”
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