SC asks Centre to respond to plea for fresh polls if most votes are NOTA

The Supreme Court recently asked the Centre and the Election Commission of India to respond to a plea that fresh elections should be conducted in constituencies where the maximum votes polled are NOTA.

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The petition said candidates ‘rejected’ by voters should not be fielded again in the fresh polls.

Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde expressed doubts initially about the feasibility of the petition to arm the electorate with the “right to reject” and nudge political parties to present voters with a better choice of candidates to pick from.

Chief Justice Bobde said if voters kept rejecting candidates, Parliament/Assembly seats would continue to remain vacant, affecting legislative functioning.

But the petition argued that “if voters are given the power to reject, political parties will take care to field worthy candidates in the first place.”