- Election Commission (EC) to allow defence personnel to vote followed by the Supreme Court’s judgment.
- This move from SC is being viewed differently. Similar judgments in 1971 were because of the circumstances then different.
- RPA Act, 1950 defines the term ‘ordinarily resident’ in Section 20, a qualification required to get registered as a voter.
- Armed forces people are defined under a different category as ‘service qualification’ in Section 20(8) and are given a special dispensation in Section 20(3) and Section 20(5).
- As a result the place of armed personnel’s posting could not be their ordinary place of residence.
- In Nagaland Assembly Election held in 1969 court rejected permission for army men to vote.
- The Court declared statutory fiction in Section 20(3) gave the right to personnel to claim registration at their home town or village.
- Retired service officers, Member of Parliament are supporting the campaign in the latest verdict of the Supreme Court.
- In certain border places the local voter population may be small and can be more by the service personnel —applicability of court order limited to only peace stations.
- As a larger number of service personnel are at Haryana and Punjab, competitive canvassing by politicians can lead to other problems.
- The formation commanders can be accused of favoritism, as happened in the Punjab Assembly election in 2007.
- Will the Election Commissioner be petitioned to effect the transfer of a formation commander because of his perceived partiality?
- A study done at EC’s behest by Thanjavur Collector in 2007 showed that only
- 34.54 % of postal ballot papers issued to service personnel returned in time to be included in counting.
- 12.63 % were received late and missed the counting.
- 25.39 % were returned undelivered, due to addresses not being updated by the Record Office.
- One solution to this is cutting transmission time. Blank ballot papers can be sent electronically or even better solution is to develop a strong online voting system.
Exams Perspective:
- ECI
- Postal Ballot
- Voting For Armed Forces Personnel
- Electronic Voting