New Delhi, January 24
The Supreme Court today issued notice to the Attorney-General of India, seeking his response to a proposal of the Election Commission (EC) on the provision of “negative” voting in the Representation of People's Act, giving the right to a voter to register his “rejection” vote against the contesting candidates if none is found to be of his choice. A Bench of Chief Justice R. C. Lahoti and Mr Justice G. P. Mathur directed the EC and People's Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), which filed a petition on the issue, to place on record supporting material to show that the system of “negative” voting was prevalent in any other democracy.

Though the issue was brought before the court by the PUCL, the EC fully supported its petition and told the Bench that it had written letters to the Centre twice on December 10, 2001 and July 5, 2004 favouring an amendment to the Representation of People's Act (RPA) to this effect.

The Court directed EC counsel S. Murlidhar and PUCL counsel Rajinder Sachar, a former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, to place on record the material to show in what manner the system of “negative” voting could be implemented and how it was working in other countries. Expressing concern over criminalisation of politics, the PUCL in its petition, filed earlier, had said that if a voter found that the candidates contesting the poll either for Parliament or the assembly from a particular constituency were not of his choice, he should have the option to register a protest “negative” vote so that it could be determined how many people had rejected the victor.

Meanwhile, the BJP today said that the issue of providing voters the “right to reject” is a debatable issue .