Proxy voting rights will be given to NRIs

TOP COURT HAS GIVEN GOVERNMENT 12 WEEKS TO CARRY OUT EXERCISE

Bill will be introduced in parliament’s winter session, government tells apex court |

The 25 million nonresident Indians (NRIs) across the world may finally be able to exercise their voting rights. Attorney-general K.K. Venugopal told the Supreme Court that a bill to allow NRIs to vote through postal or e-ballots would be introduced in the winter session of Parliament to amend the Representation of People (RP) Act. The top court has given the government 12 weeks to carry out the exercise.

On July 21, the attorney general had told the court that NRIs could not be allowed to vote by merely changing the rules made under the RP Act and that “a bill was needed to be introduced in the Parliament to amend the Act itself to grant the voting rights”.

The court was hearing petitions filed by Dr Shamsheer Vayalil, a UAE-based doctor, and Nagender Chindam, chairman of Pravasi Bharat, in London on the issue.

The PILs said that 114 countries, including 20 Asian nations, have adopted external voting. It said that external voting could be held by setting up polling booths at diplomatic missions or through postal, proxy or electronic voting. The PILs have been pending for three years.

Amending law

The Election Commission of India had already recommended that the government take necessary steps to amend the law for NRI voters.

In 2010, during the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised NRIs that they would soon be able to vote electronically. But the jubilation faded when Election Commission made their physical presence mandatory in their respective constituencies at the time of the polls to cast their votes.

The apex court has now directed the central government and the Election Commission to provide details of the steps they can take to ensure that NRIs who are registered as voters can exercise their franchise from wherever they are.

Welcoming the move, the Abu Dhabi-based petitioner in the case, Dr Vayalil, chairman of VPS Healthcare, said he was given to understand that the ‘proxy voting’ could be implemented within three months of legal amendment to be done by the parliament.

Six million NRIs who have already registered their names in the electoral roll, will be the immediate beneficiaries of this move, he said.