Right to Reject

‘Right to reject’ was first proposed in India by the Law Commission in the year 1999. It also suggested that the candidates be declared elected only if they obtain more than the 50% of the valid votes cast.

Key Points

• The Election Commission recognized ‘Right to Reject’ in 2001 and in 2004 in its Proposed Electoral Reforms.
• The ‘Background Paper on Electoral Reforms’, prepared by the Union Ministry of Law in 2010, allowed Negative/neutral voting, by which voters can reject all candidates. It also proposed that if certain percentage of the vote was negative/ neutral, then election result should be nullified and new election conducted.

NOTA

NOTA stand for None of the above. It is an option that was provided to the Indian voters in elections in the year 2009. This option allows a voter to choose None of the above option if he/she do not want to give his/her vote to any of the candidates contesting elections. However, NOTA was first used in 2013 elections that were held in 4 Indian states and UT of Delhi. The four states were Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Mizoram, and Chhattisgarh.

PIL on NOTA in Supreme Court

An advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay recently moved to the Supreme Court of India for a direction that fresh elections should be conducted in a constituency where NOTA (None of the above) option has received the maximum number of votes. He also submitted that none of the candidates who lost to NOTA should be allowed to contest the fresh polls.

Election Commission of India

Election Commission of India is a body that is responsible for conducting elections in the country. The commission works as per the Article 324 of the Indian Constitution. ECI was established on January 25, 1950.