The right to reject, Supreme Court empowers voters.

Chandigarh Tribune: Chandigarh: Monday, September 30, 2013.

In yet another judgment the Supreme Court has tried to clean up the murky political process in the country. Acting on a public interest litigation petition filed by the People's Union for Civil Liberties in 2004, the court asked the Election Commission on Friday to provide the "none of the above" (NOTA) option in the electronic voting machines. Way back in 2001 the Election Commission had suggested to the Law Ministry and the government to allow negative voting. In the court it supported the PUCL petition. There is a possibility of the new choice being offered to voters in the coming assembly elections.

The stated advantage of having the court-directed option of "none of the above" is that it would put pressure on political parties to field clean candidates broadly acceptable to people. This may happen only to a limited extent because regardless of the number of people exercising the NOTA option, negative voting would not alter the poll result. This may deter people from taking the trouble of going all the way to a polling station and stand in a queue to exercise their right to reject. Urban upper- and middle-class voters are already not very enthusiastic about casting their votes. Still, there will be public-spirited, politically aware people who will be ready to face the odds to exercise their right to reject. This could unsettle the electoral calculations of parties depending on urban voters.

There may be cases where the POTA votes are higher than all others and such elections could then be challenged in court. The court then will have to decide the fate of the candidates with most votes. In recent days the Supreme Court judgments have tried to clean up politics by disqualifying convicted legislators, barring arrested candidates from contesting elections and bringing political parties under the RTI Act to force them to reveal the sources of their funding. The latest order gives the voter the right to say no to incompetent, corrupt and criminal elements entering the fray because of their money and muscle power. Changes in laws may be required to make negative voting truly effective.