The hearing in the petition relating to NRI voting rights to January was adjourned by the Supreme Court
The Bill to amend the Representation of People’s Act, 1951 is likely to come up before the Rajya Sabha in the Winter Session of the Parliament as told to the bench of Justices Madan Lokur & Deepak Gupta.
The Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill, 2017 was cleared by the Lok Sabha in August this year, and is expected to be tabled before the Rajya Sabha in the Winter Session that begins in the second week of this month.
On account of this, the Court deferred the hearing in the matter till January 2019.
The petition filed by one Dr. Shamsheer has challenged Section 20A of the Representation of People Act, 2010 on the ground that it does not allow NRIs to utilize external voting methods to cast their votes.
The petitioner 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.
The Central government took it upon itself to change the law via the 2017 Amendment Bill. The Bill seeks to amend the 1951 Act to permit an overseas voter to cast their vote in person or by proxy in the constituency where the poll is taken.
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