CALL FOR FRESH POLLS IF NOTA TOPS COUNT

• The Supreme Court recently asked the Centre and the Election Commission of India to respond to a plea that fresh elections should be conducted in constituencies where the highest number of votes polled are NOTA (None Of The Above).
• The petition said candidates ‘rejected’ by voters should not be fielded again in the fresh polls.

Right to reject:

• During the hearing, Chief Justice of India expressed doubts initially about the feasibility of the petition to arm the electorate with the “right to reject” and nudge political parties to present voters with a better choice of candidates to pick from.
• Chief Justice said if voters kept rejecting candidates, Parliament/Assembly seats would continue to remain vacant, affecting legislative functioning.
• It is a constitutional problem. If your argument is accepted and there is a certain number of NOTAs, then the constituency will go unrepresented in the Parliament. How will the Parliament function then?” Chief Justice asked.
• Petioner replied that “if voters are given the power to reject, political parties will take care to field worthy candidates in the first place”
• The petition noted how parties spent crores of rupees on the candidates.
• The CJI also flagged during the hearing the issue whether a political party could influence voters to not vote in a particular constituency.
• Petioner’s argument prevailed, which led the court to agree to examine the issue raised in the petition.
• Political parties choose contesting candidates in a very undemocratic manner without consulting electors. That is why many times people are totally discontented with candidates presented before them.
• This problem can be solved by holding a fresh election if maximum votes are polled in favour of NOTA.

SOURCE: THE ECONOMIC TIMES,THE HINDU