Military & Aerospace

New game plan to deny soldier’s right to cast the ballot
Star Rating Loader Please wait...
Issue Courtesy: HT (Chd edition) | Date : 05 Mar , 2014

(Photo Courtesy: Shib Shankar Chatterjee)

Earlier soldiers (which includes sailors and airmen too) were required to cast their vote by postal ballot.  The procedure devised for this was so convoluted, that it was simply inoperative. Less than 10 percent votes ever reached in time to be taken into account. Thus a citizen’s (soldier’s) most fundamental right in a democracy was, by design, denied to him.

Election Commission’s recent ruling that a soldier should have served in a constituency for a period of three years to qualify to cast his vote in that constituency is arbitrary and has no legal backing.

The Representation of The People’s Act, 1950 (43 of 1950) and The Representation of People’s Act, 1951 (43 of 1951 ) makes a special provision for voting by postal ballot for those Indians who are living abroad or are posted abroad.  Section 20 ( 3 ) of  Part 111 of 1950 Act, states, “Any person having, ‘service qualification,’ shall be deemed to be ordinary resident on any date in the constituency in which, but for his having such service qualification, he would have been ordinary resident on that date.” Sub Sections 3 and 5 of Section 20 further clarifies this point. Sub section 8 of Section 20 defines, ‘service qualification,’ means being member of armed forces of the Union. (Section 20 (7) (a)) The wife of a soldier residing with him too will be considered, ‘ordinary resident,’ (sub section 6 of Section 20.) Change to this provision can be made by the Government of India in consultation with the Election Commission (and not by the Election Commission on its own!)  1950 Act (43 of 1950) further clarify this position in Section 60 , sub sections (a) and (b)

Therefore, Election Commission’s recent ruling that a soldier should have served in a constituency for a period of three years to qualify to cast his vote in that constituency is arbitrary and has no legal backing. Election Commission would be aware that less than 1 percent of soldiers remain posted in a given station (constituency) for 3 years. This is yet another device to denying him his fundamental right as a citizen of the Republic of India.

This issue was raised with the Election Commission ( Shri Manohar Singh Gill ) who simply ignored the basic point and instead mooted the idea of proxy voting! He had either not read the Representation of Peoples Act (1950 and 1951) or believed in denying the soldier his right to vote. So he mooted the idea of, ‘proxy voting.’ Which according to the Act is not applicable to a soldier. However on this suggestion, a committee of secretaries was formed to consider proxy voting by a soldier. The committee took just 3 short years to approve this proposal and came up with a system and procedure, which was totally inoperative thus placing the soldier back in square one.

The Supreme Commander of the armed forces needs to intervene in the matter and see that his troops are not denied their most basic democratic right.

The moot question is as to why the government of India and the defence services Supreme Commander has been a party to this denial of the basic right of a soldier in a democracy by the Election Commission! The Indian soldier has defended the Constitution of India not through debate but with his blood. Yet all manner of tricks have been devised, these 65 years to deny him the right granted to him by the very Constitution in whose defence he has been laying down his life.

Soldiers stay away from their permanent place of residence for as long as 17 to 40 years with brief visits to places of permanent residence. X soldier may not be staying in a given military station ( constituency ) for more than two to two and a half years but soldiers as such are, for all practical purposes, permanent residents at such locations.  So their interest in such constituencies is an essential feature and that is why they are considered as, ‘ordinary residents,’ of such locations.

Though the Election Commission had realized the inappropriateness of its policy and accepted that soldiers can vote at the place of posting, but as a second thought, perhaps not on its own, come up with the argument that presence of large body of soldiers in J and K and North East will influence the results in some of the constituencies in those areas. Soldiers are in these areas not on their own volition. They have been there for a very long time, with no prospect of their being pulled out, any time soon, and as such have a stake at those places as any other citizen.

The Supreme Commander of the armed forces needs to intervene in the matter and see that his troops are not denied their most basic democratic right.

Rate this Article
Star Rating Loader Please wait...
The views expressed are of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of the Indian Defence Review.

About the Author

Lt Gen Harwant Singh

Former Deputy Chief of Army Staff. He also commanded a corps in J&K.

More by the same author

Post your Comment

2000characters left

2 thoughts on “New game plan to deny soldier’s right to cast the ballot

  1. Deny the soldiers their dues and now ensure they loose their Right to Franchise. So if now they go to courts to get this reinstated, the Army Chief will start speaking a different language. The Indian Army is transforming !!!!!

More Comments Loader Loading Comments