The government on Monday told the Supreme Court that it is working hard to prepare a mechanism to allow Non-Resident Indians vote from abroad.
In a decision empowering India's expatriate community, the government had in February this year informed the Supreme Court its decision to accept the Election Commission's recommendation to allow NRIs to vote from abroad through e-postal ballots or proxy voting.
Briefing a bench led by Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu on progress made, Additional Solicitor General P.S. Narasimha submitted that the work being done with regard to this issue was complicated and involved several ministries, including the Ministries of External Affairs, Home, Overseas Indian Affairs and Finance.
The Bench however insisted on putting a time-limit for the government to come up with a substantial result and allowed it eight weeks.
The hearing was based on separate petitions filed by V.P Shamsheer, a UAE-based doctor, and Nagender Chindam, chairman of Pravasi Bharat in London.
Senior advocate Dushyant Dave and advocate Haris Beeran, for Mr. Shamsheer, submitted that the government need not wait for a statutory amendment, but can straight away issue a notification implementing the change in the voting law.
The government's decision to allow NRIs to vote from abroad endows expatriates – a bulk of whom are migrant labourers, mostly from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and northern parts of the country – to emerge as a decisive force in the country’s electoral politics.
It removes an “unreasonable restriction” posed by Section 20(A) of the Representation of Peoples (Amendment) Act of 2010, requiring overseas electors to be physically present in their electoral constituencies to cast their votes.
The recommendation came in an October 2014 report prepared by the Election Commission titled 'Exploring Feasibility of Alternative Options for Voting by Overseas Electors' report.
