(MENAFN- Gulf Times) The Supreme Court has cleared a proposal for allowing its more than 10mn non-resident Indians to vote in elections from abroad.
The court gave the federal government eight weeks to inform it about steps taken on the long-pending demand of NRIs for enfranchisement.
One of the petitioners, Dr Shamseer Vayalil, said the court favoured e-ballot where election officers electronically transfer the ballot papers to registered electors who will return them by post after casting their vote.
In October last year, the Election Commission (EC) submitted in the court a detailed report of a 12-member panel of experts, which also included representative of the federal law ministry, after consulting political parties with the options of e-ballot and proxy voting.
The government also informed the court that it had accepted 'in letter and spirit' the EC's suggestions for absentee ballot. It now needs amendments in electoral laws.
"The Supreme Court has directed the government to implement the e-ballot within eight weeks," said Dr Vayalil, a radiologist who runs a hospital in Dubai. "It's celebration time for NRIs. They will now have a say in policy making, even in government formation."
The Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice H L Dattu and A K Sikri asked the government to work on the plan immediately.
"Since the views and recommendations have been accepted let them go ahead with the follow-up. They will have to carry out the follow-up process at the earliest," the court said.
Additional Solicitor General P L Narasimha told the court that the law ministry was working on amendments in electoral laws based on the EC recommendations.
Until now, NRIs were allowed to enrol as voters online but could cast their ballot only if they were present in their constituencies at the time of polling, which the petitioners termed as discriminatory.
They also pointed out that 114 countries allow absentee voting and among them are 20 Asian countries, prompting the judges to wonder why India did not address the issue so far.
The move is likely to have a huge impact on elections in states like Kerala, which has nearly 10% of its population living abroad, helping its economy sustain through remittances but having no say in elections.
"It's going to make a huge difference in the state's political landscape. Now the NRIs will decide who should rule them as well as the state. It'll also bring the issues they face to the forefront," said Manjalamkuzhi Ali, Kerala's urban affairs minister.
The state government was waiting for the top court to reach a decision and the federal authorities to set the rules to allow NRIs to vote in civic polls just nine months away.
The state also needs to make amendments in the Panchayati Raj Act and the election manual to enfranchise its 2.5mn-strong NRI community.
Elections to the Kerala Legislative Assembly are due in April next year.
"The e-postal ballot is less expensive than the traditional voting and there'll be no extra burden on the exchequer," said Ali, who had spent nearly two decades as an NRI in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia before taking a political plunge.
Last month, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had assured NRIs that the EC was working on their voting rights.
The EC has ruled out setting up polling stations at Indian mission abroad as in some nations the NRI population is as high as the native population making it difficult for the embassies to handle it.
The 50-page report on "exploring feasibility of alternative options for voting by overseas electors" that the government endorsed in the court was prepared by panel led by Vinod Zutshi, Deputy Election Commissioner.
"If these voting rights are allowed, it will give a huge boost to the country on several fronts," said another petitioner Nagendra Chindam, a London-based IT consultant who also staged a three-day hunger strike outside the Indian High Commission in London with the demand last year.
For years, NRIs were deprived of voting rights if they had been out of the country for more than six months at a stretch.
Last week, at the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas at Gandhinagar in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat, the government reached out to the Indian diaspora and promised them more rights and opportunities.
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