Undertrials can contest, but can't vote

STUNTED RIGHTS: Undertrials confined in jails across the country cannot vote.

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New Delhi: An undertrial can contest an election but an undertrial cannot vote that is one of the paradoxes of our democracy.

Constitutional experts say this runs contrary to the spirit of democracy.

Mohammad Shahbuddin, Mukhtar Ansari accused of grave charges can contest elections from behind bars but men like doctor and human rights activist Binayak Sen, Senior Journalist Prashant Rahi, Activist Abhay Sahu undertrials confined in jails across the country cannot vote.

According to section 62(5) of the Representation of the People Act (RPA), "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."

Constitutional experts argue that this undermines the most fundamental rights of a citizen. Activists fighting for voting rights of undertrials have fought and lost their case in the Supreme Court way back in 1997.

They point out the glaring contradictions in the RPA.

• A convict can also vote in an election if out on bail.

• A person under preventive detention can also vote by postal ballot.

• A convict sentenced to less than two years in jail can even contest elections even from the jail.

Senior advocate Harish Salve says, “A large section of people are denied the right to vote, this needs to be changed"

Postal ballots could have been a way out but the Election Commission has never really bothered about granting this right to undertrials.

Harish Salve says, " The right to vote is a statutory right ... the election commission gives it to you. "

There are more than 2,00,000 undertrails lodged in various jails across the country. Most of the people would go free simply because the rate of conviction is so low in India, ironically, if these people could afford bail bonds, nothing could stop them from voting.