As usual, 18,000 prisoners couldn’t vote in Punjab polls

HOSHIARPUR: Nearly 18,000 prisoners and hundreds of others in lawful custody of police could not cast their votes in the recent assembly elections, thanks to an age-old provision of the law. Under Section 62 (5) of Representation of People's Act (RPI), a person confined to jail, whether convicted or under trial or in police custody, is barred from voting in parliamentary and assembly elections.

The country has witnessed several elections since the enactment of the law, but the matter has never been raised in the Parliament despite frequent demands from the prisoners. When the right to franchise has been guaranteed to every adult citizen of the country by the Constitution, why a restriction had been put on them by the RPI, they question.

It is ironical that an under trial can contest the elections but cannot cast his vote unless he is out on bail. Prisoners who cannot manage to get out on bail cannot exercise their franchise, which is their fundamental right.

Contrary to this, even a convict can cast his vote if he is out on bail. Moreover, a person under preventive detention is also eligible for voting.

Rajya Sabha member Avinash Rai Khanna, when contacted, said that it was for the first time that the prisoners had put up the demand for voting rights before him during the recently-held elections. He promised to take the matter up in the Parliament.

A public interest litigation (PIL) had challenged the said provision of the RPI which denied voting rights to the undertrials in the Supreme Court a few years ago but the court dismissed the petition on the ground that the right to vote was a statutory right subject to the limitations imposed by the statute.

The National Human Rights Commission too recommended voting rights for the undertrials to the home ministry but the government did not respond.