Indian expats will have to wait for online voting

Non-resident Indians (NRIs) will not be able to exercise their franchise in the ongoing general elections in the country from their overseas locations.

A division bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan dashed the hopes of the expatriates on Friday by accepting the Election Commission stand that it was not possible to introduce online or postal voting for the NRIs after the commencement of the election process.

The panel reiterated its stand in response to the apex court’s April 7 direction to explore the possibility of facilitating online voting before the counting of votes on May 16. The commission counsel pointed out several practical difficulties in this regard.

The panel had earlier informed the court that it was examining the possibility of allowing online voting to the diaspora and added that they were planning to set up an expert panel to suggest measures for implementing the same.

The counsel had pointed out the need for amending the People’s Representation Act for allowing the postal voting to the expats. The government had not considered this while amending the Act for granting voting rights to the NRIs.

According to the law amended in 2010, registered NRI voters can cast their votes only by being present in the constituency on the polling day. The petitioner, a Dubai-based non-resident Keralite (NRK), filed the petition for external voting saying this was not practical since the number of Indians living abroad was more than 25 million.

The apex court observed that the petition filed by Dr V.P. Shamsheer had lost its relevance since he had mainly sought the facility for the elections in Kerala and New Delhi, where the elections are already over. Therefore, the division bench has asked the petitioner to revise his petition or file a new one.

The court has agreed to conduct a detailed hearing into the plea after the conclusion of the election process. The Election Commission has been asked to file their response by then.

Facility for voting from their place of residence has been a long-standing demand of NRIs, especially Keralites from the Gulf countries, who are keen to participate in the electoral process. This is evident from the number of registrations.

Out of 11,844 registered voters, as much as 11,400 are from Kerala. Several of them came to the state to cast their votes this time. A group from Dubai even chartered a flight to provide facility to the registered voters to cast their votes.

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