Salve, Rohatgi in right of NRIs to vote from abroad; SC issues notice to Centre, ECI

The Supreme Court has sought the response of the Central government and the Election Commission of India (EC) in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Dr. Shamsheer (Petitioner) praying for the right of external voting for Non Resident Indians (NRIs) from the place of their employment..Senior Counsels Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi will be appearing for the Petitioner. Attorney General Goolam Vahanvati will represent the Central government..In the petition drawn by Advocate Haris Beeran and filed by Advocate RS Jena, the Petitioner has challenged Section 20A of the Representation of People Act, 2010 (Act) on the ground that it does not allow NRIs to utilize external voting methods to cast their votes and a registered NRI voter will have to be personally present at the polling station in his constituency to cast his vote..The Petitioner has further submitted that though the object of amending the Act and inserting Section 20A was to enable NRIs to exercise their franchise, the impediment of having to travel all the way back to the constituency in which they are registered as a voter has made it practically difficult for a vast majority of the NRIs to cast their vote. This, the petitioner has alleged, violates right to equality under Article 14 because only a few economically well off NRIs will be capable of travelling to India to vote while the not so financially stable NRIs will not..Shamsheer has also contended that though there are over 1 crore NRIs who are entitled to vote, only 11,000 have enrolled as voters in the electoral list because of the restriction placed on the NRIs by Section 20A..Alleging that denial of right to vote is also a violation of fundamental right under Articles 19(1) and 21 of the Constitution, the Petitioner has prayed for,.“reading down the Amendment to the Representation of Peoples Act , 2010 (Section 20A) as being violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India in as much as it does not allow the NRI’s to vote from the place of employment;directing the Union of India to set up a committee to study the various available options for the purpose of external voting.”.When the matter was heard last Friday, a Division Bench of Justices KS Radhakrishnan and Vikramajit Sen issued notice to the Centre and EC while observing, “This is a very important issue, you should have come earlier.”.The case is now listed for April 7.