Supreme Court rejects plea for NRI voting rights
By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 20 July 2010, 23:00 IST   |    2 Comments
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Supreme Court rejects plea for NRI voting rights
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has made it clear that it will not consider PILs concerning policy matters and refused to entertain a petition seeking voting rights for non-resident Indians (NRIs). The court also noted that since the Bill relating to grant of voting rights to NRIs is pending with the government, it would not like to interfere in the matter. To bring uniformity in the treatment of PILs, a Bench comprising Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar said, "From now onwards, the Supreme Court will not entertain matters which strictly fall within the policy domain of the government. And no PIL will be entertained if the petitioner has not represented the authorities about his grievances." Having clarified about its approach towards PILs, the Bench sought to know from Amar Dave, counsel for PIL petitioner Ahammed Adiyottil, whether the NRI working in Qatar had ever filed his income tax returns in India to claim voting rights. Dave and advocate Harish Beeran pointed out that the provisions of Representation of People Act clearly mandated that absence from a constituency for specific periods, because of working abroad, would not be a ground for striking off the name of the person from the voters' list. Faced with difficult questions from the Bench about tax returns and property acquisition rights, Dave informed the Bench that the government had drafted a bill in 2006 seeking to give voting rights to NRIs. The Bench immediately said, "That is precisely the point. If the government grants voting rights to NRIs, we are not coming in the way. But we will not grant it as we do not know the consequences of it. So, let the government decide and pass the law." It allowed the counsel to withdraw the PIL.

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