Centre for removal of ‘NOTA’ from RS poll

Centre for removal of ‘NOTA’ from RS poll

News:

1. Recently, the Supreme court reserved a PIL petition for judgment , seeking to scrap the ‘NOTA’ option in Upper House polls

Important facts:

2. The Bench was led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra.
3. According to the CJI, NOTA is meant only for universal adult suffrage and direct elections and not for polls held by the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote.
4. Critizing the system of NOTA, senior advocate A.M.Singhvi put forward the following arguments:

• NOTA in indirect elections, such as in the Rajya Sabha, would lead to horse-trading, corruption and using of extra constitutional methods to defeat a party.
• NOTA make the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote nugatory and otiose.
• The Election Commission cannot sanction the use of NOTA by way of mere circulars, which have the effect of overriding the provisions of Article 80(4)-proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote
• The circular had negated the entire purpose of open voting brought in 2003 to further party discipline and adherence to party’s choice of candidate in the election to the Rajya Sabha.

5. However, the Election Commission has gave the following counter arguments in support of NOTA:

• A person, along with a right to vote, also has the right not to vote.
• Even if it is an open ballot system, it does not take away his right to not vote.