EC removes NOTA option from Rajya Sabha, Legislative Council polls - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

EC removes NOTA option from Rajya Sabha, Legislative Council polls.

On 21 August, the apex court had said that NOTA will not be applicable as a ballot option in the Rajya Sabha polls.

The Election Commission Tuesday withdrew the ‘none of the above’ (NOTA) option from ballot papers of the Rajya Sabha and the Legislative Council polls following a Supreme Court directive.
On 21 August, the apex court had said that NOTA will not be applicable as a ballot option in the Rajya Sabha polls. NOTA could continue to be an option in direct elections such as the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud has set aside the Election Commission’s notification allowing the NOTA option in the ballot papers for the Rajya Sabha polls. It had questioned the poll panel’s notification and said that NOTA was meant to be exercised by individual voters in direct polls.
In an order issued to all state chief electoral officers, the Election Commission said in view of the verdict, “The NOTA option will no longer be applicable in the Rajya Sabha election and the Legislative Council election.”
From now onwards, the column for NOTA will not be printed in the ballot papers for these elections, it said. (Source: Livemint)


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EC removes NOTA option from Rajya Sabha, Legislative Council polls.

No NOTA in Rajya Sabha elections, rules Supreme Court - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

No NOTA in Rajya Sabha elections, rules Supreme Court.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra observed that the NOTA option is applicable only for direct elections and not the Rajya Sabha polls.

The Supreme Court Tuesday ruled that the None of The Above (NOTA) option cannot be made available in Rajya Sabha elections. A three-judge bench of CJI Misra and justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud observed that the NOTA option is applicable only for direct elections and not indirect elections such as the Rajya Sabha polls.

The top court, while hearing the petition of Gujarat Congress leader Shailesh Manubhai Parmar, had earlier said that by introducing NOTA, the poll panel was legitimising the act of not voting. Justice Chandrachud had pointed out that the rule in Upper House polls was an open ballot and the members by not transferring their excess vote to the next member would be violating the contract between parties. “If he doesn’t vote, party will expel him. But by making option of NOTA, you are legitimising his action,” added Justice Chandrachud.
Parmar had challenged the Election Commission’s notification allowing the NOTA option in ballot papers during the last Rajya Sabha polls, in which the party had fielded sitting MP Ahmed Patel. The Congress leader had alleged that if the NOTA provision was allowed in the Rajya Sabha polls, it would encourage “horse-trading and corruption”. The Centre has come out in support of the petition, while EC is opposing it.
Defending the use of NOTA, the EC said a member had the right not to vote and that would not be against the conduct of election rules or unconstitutional. The poll panel had said NOTA was first introduced in 2014 following an apex court verdict a year earlier and they (the Congress) did not have any objection in subsequent polls as it suited them. (Source: The Indian Express)


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No NOTA in Rajya Sabha elections, rules Supreme Court.