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A student of National Law School India University, Bangalore filed an PIL before the Supreme Court of India challenging Section 62(5) of Representation of the People Act, 1951 which says “No person shall vote at any election if he is confined in a prison, whether under a sentence of imprisonment or transportation or otherwise, or is in the lawful custody of the police”.
The contention of the petitioner is that Section is broadly worded so as to affect even the undertrials and persons detained in civil prison. The anomaly in the provision is that persons who are out on bail can vote. Petitioner’s Advocate Zoheb Hussain questioned that “There is no conceivable object that the classification envisaged by the impugned provision seeks to achieve. Even if decriminalization of politics is said to be the object, it cannot be conceived how the impugned provision, which deprives prisoners of their right to vote, has any nexus at all with decriminalization of politics.”
Petitioner while arguing cited the case of Anukul Chandra Pradhan v Union of India (1997) 6 SCC 1 and contended that it fails to achieve the objective of decriminalization of politics, on the other hand, it violates Article 14 of Indian Constitution. Further in support petitioner presented an example of Supreme courts of Canada and South Africa and the European Court of Human rights who have also upheld the prisoner’s right to vote.
In the order dated, 16.04.2019 Supreme Court listed the matter after two weeks but also questioned the interest of the petitioner in the subject matter and why he has picked up this particular cause to be raised in the court. However, it was made clear that the above query has no connection with the merits of the contentions raised.
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