NRIs' voting right: SC asks Centre by when law will be changed

The Supreme Court today asked the Centre to apprise it within two weeks about the timeframe by when it would bring a Bill to the amend electoral law to allow Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to vote through postal or e- ballots in polls in the country.
A bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud considered the statement of Attorney General K K Venugopal that NRIs could not be allowed to vote by merely changing the rules made under the Representation of People (RP) Act and a Bill was needed to be introduced in Parliament to amend the Act itself to grant voting rights to them.

The attorney general also informed the bench that a group of ministers held a meeting yesterday to examine various aspects of the issue including amending the law.
The court had on July 14 asked the Centre to decide in a week whether it would amend the electoral law or rules to allow NRIs to vote by postal or e-ballots in the polls in the country while taking note of the fact that the Centre and the Election Commission of India (ECI) were agreeable to the report of a panel that NRIs might be allowed to vote.
During the proceedings, Venugopal ruled out the option of amending the rules and said that the law has to be suitably changed.

The poll panel had said the move to allow NRIs to use proxy voting on the lines of defence personnel and e-ballot facility would require changes either in the RP Act or in the rules made under the Act.

"The only question that arises for consideration now is whether the Union of India (UOI) needs to accept proposals made in the report of October 2014, which has already been accepted, in principle, by way of an amendment of Sections 20 and 20A of the RP Act, 1950, or alternatively, by a mere amendment of the rules?
"Factually, on the instant aspect of the matter, the UOI had sought time on November 18, 2016. Further time was again being sought. We afford one further opportunity to the UOI to take a final decision, whether the proposals accepted by it needed to be implemented by way of an amendment to the provisions of the RP Act or the rules framed thereunder," the bench had said in its order.

The Centre had said that in principle, it was agreeable to the recommendations made in the report prepared by a 12- member committee led by the deputy election commissioner Vinod Zutshi to explore the feasibility of alternative options for voting by overseas electors.
Former attorney general Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for one of the petitioners, had earlier said that NRIs could be given the right to vote by making changes in the rules only and there was no need to amend the provisions of the RP Act.
The bench was hearing a batch of petitions filed by Nagender Chindam, who is the chairman of London-based Pravasi Bharat organisation and other NRIs including Shamsheer VP on the issue.

Earlier, the Centre had said that the draft Bill to provide voting rights to NRIs through postal ballots would be further revised before it was tabled in Parliament.
The apex court had said it could not order the legislature to make or amend a law within a particular timeframe and had granted time to the Centre to effect changes in the statute to extend voting rights to NRIs through postal or e-ballots.
It was submitted in one of the pleas that in Kerala, 70 per cent of the people were NRIs who should be given this right keeping in view their contribution to the country.

The PILs have said that 114 countries, including 20 Asian nations, have adopted external voting. It said external voting could be held by setting up polling booths at diplomatic missions or through postal, proxy or electronic voting.
The 12-member committee comprising officials from the EC, law and external affairs ministries had taken the vies of various sections before submitting its report to the apex court.