New Delhi: The Supreme Court has discussed mechanisms to make voting compulsory in India to boost turnout, citing examples from other countries that have enforced compulsory voting, and also questioned whether the NOTA (None of the Above) option has had any real impact on elections.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi heard a petition filed by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, which has challenged a provision in the Representation of the People Act, 1951. The provision, Section 53(2), allows a candidate to be declared elected without a single vote being cast if no one else files a valid nomination. The petitioners suggested that the elections be held in such cases, so voters can press NOTA if they dislike the only candidate in the fray.
Chief Justice Kant orally remarked that the court had been thinking about a mechanism to make voting compulsory, though not one that punishes people harshly. “Sometimes it feels like we need to have some compulsory mechanism, not very harsh, but some compulsory mechanism, to ensure that people go and vote," he said.
While India debates the idea, a number of countries have implemented compulsory voting for decades. According to the Pew Research Center, citing data from the International IDEA (International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance), 27 countries worldwide have compulsory voting laws, but the law is actually enforced in only 13 of them. The rest have it on paper and leave it there.
