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Hearing in Supreme Court on NOTA : On a petition related to Nun of the Above i.e. NOTA, the Supreme Court has issued a notice to the Election Commission and sought its reply. In this petition filed by motivational speaker Shiv Kheda, it has been demanded that, 'If any candidate gets more votes in the election, then the election for that seat should be cancelled. Later there should be re-election on one seat. Apart from this, candidates who get less votes than NOTA should be banned from contesting elections for five years. It is noteworthy that in this petition the lawyer has also mentioned the high voltage drama that took place on Surat seat.
The petitioner's lawyer cited the incident in Surat, Gujarat.
Let us tell you that according to the current system, the candidate who gets more votes is considered the winner. Referring to the incident in Surat, Gujarat, the applicant's lawyer said that due to such arrangement a candidate from Surat has been declared unopposed. Therefore, it is necessary to have a detailed hearing on this matter. This application will not have any impact on the results of Surat seat or any matter of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
What did the applicant demand?
In the petition filed in the Supreme Court, Shiv Kheda has also demanded that a one-year ban be imposed on candidates who get less votes than NOTA from contesting any election. Furthermore, NOTA should be seen as a hypothetical candidate. In this case, the Chief Justice of the country D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra.
What is the controversy over Surat Lok Sabha seat?
Surat Lok Sabha seat of Gujarat has become a topic of discussion due to the cancellation of form of Congress candidate and declaration of BJP candidate unopposed. Recently election forms were filled for this seat, in which the form of Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani was canceled and the rest of the candidates also withdrew their candidature, due to which BJP's Mukesh Dalal was declared unopposed. There was an uproar in Congress after this incident. Till now, big leaders of Congress are not ready to speak against Kumbhani, while on the other hand there is a lot of anger among the workers. Not only this, Kumbhani is also being strongly opposed at many places.
What is NOTA?
If the voters do not find the candidate of any party suitable while voting, then they can register their protest by pressing the NOTA button. NOTA means none of the above. EVMs have been in use for many years but the NOTA button has been introduced only in the last decade. It was first implemented in 2013 in the assembly elections of 5 states. In 2013, India became the 14th country in the world to introduce alternative currency notes.
Why are notes needed?
When there was no NOTA system in the country, people did not go to vote if they did not find a suitable candidate, due to which their vote was wasted and people were deprived of the right to vote. In such a situation, in the year 2009, the Election Commission sought approval from the Supreme Court regarding its intention to provide an alternative to notes. After this, civil rights organization People's Union for Civil Liberties also filed a PIL supporting NOTA. And in the year 2013, the court allowed this case.
What will happen if NOTA gets the most votes?
The rules of NOTA have been changed from time to time. Initially NOTA was considered an illegal vote. That is, if NOTA got more votes than all the other candidates, the candidate with the second highest number of votes was declared the winner. Finally, in 2018, for the first time in the country, NOTA was given equal status as candidates. In December 2018, NOTA got the highest number of votes in the municipal elections in five districts of Haryana. In such a situation, all the candidates were declared ineligible. After this the Election Commission decided to hold re-elections.
What will happen if NOTA wins the elections again?
The Maharashtra State Election Commission in its 2018 order has given NOTA the status of 'Notional Election Candidate'. According to the order, if a candidate gets equal number of NOTA votes then the actual contesting candidate will be declared the winner. If NOTA gets more votes than all others then re-election will be held. But even after holding elections, if any candidate does not get more votes than NOTA, then elections will not be held for the third time. In such a situation, the candidate who gets the most votes after NOTA is declared the winner. According to the order, these rules of Maharashtra State Election Commission are limited to the elections held in the state.