The Supreme Court in a landmark judgement gave the citizens of India the right to reject all candidates in elections, while hearing on the petition of the People's Union for Civil Liberties, an NGO.
The apex court ruled that the Electronic Voting Machines should have a button that will allow the voters to choose "none of the above" option. The bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai and Justice Ranjan Gogoi said that voters should be allowed to reject all candidates standing in an election in the constituency.
The bench observed that,"Negative voting would foster purity and vibrancy in elections,and would lead to systemic change in polls and political parties will be forced to project clean candidates,".
The Election Commission also backed negative voting, but the government had been reluctant to implement any such law .
{INDIA HONEST accepts that the democratic government must be feeling the pain of most of the criminal background candidates, as it hurts their rights as a candidate, who after making such huge expenditure and hard work, may be completely rejected on the flimsy ground that majority of the votes cast are negative ? Is not a valid argument in present Indian model of democracy ?}
The supporters of the negative voting have been demanding that re-election should be ordered in a constituency where more than 50 % of the voters reject all candidates. But this historic judgement doesn't allow that, so it will have little impact on the outcome of an election, as negative votes will only be recorded but will not be counted.
INDIA HONEST reminds : As expected and seen in past cases Congress legal cell must have got busy and ready to find a way out to demolish this judgement, which opposes criminal elements being elected. Will not Law minister soon bring another ordinance to negate this judgement, saying it hurts the sentiments and morality of the majority of candidates standing in an election, possibly with a criminal record ?