Know about NOTA before 2024 election votes. It is sometimes very confusing when going to vote in an election. There is no desire to vote for a candidate who has to vote on his own judgment. However, one has to vote for someone from amongst the candidates.
Is this an extreme irony in a democracy? Political parties contesting elections prepare the list of candidates as per their wishes. Now candidates steeped in crime and corruption get candidacy easily.
Usage of NOTA in India
What is a NOTA ?
What percentage of votes fell into NOTA after the use of NOTA?
Some rules of NOTA
NEWS UPDATE : Important Orders of Supreme Court regarding NOTA
Many again question voting in NOTA. There has been a lot of controversy in the past around NOTA. But even after that a definite position on NOTA is yet to be revealed.
The Supreme Court has issued a special notice to the Election Commission regarding this NOTA in the midst of the second phase of the 18th Lok Sabha elections in the country.
The notification issued by a three-judge bench headed by the chief justice of the court while hearing a PIL filed in the Supreme Court has given important directions.
The court mentioned in the notice to the Election Commission to frame a rule relating to NOTA. The notification said rules should be framed as to what steps to be taken if the NOTA gets a majority.
The petition filed in the Supreme Court said that if the NOTA gets a majority in any constituency, then the election in that constituency should be canceled and fresh elections should be held again.
It may be recalled that the PIL related to NOTA was filed by a person named Shiv Kheda and advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan argued in the Supreme Court on his behalf.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud was hearing the case. The petition also talks about how the BJP candidate has been elected unopposed in surat Lok Sabha constituency in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
Hearing the case, Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said the court will issue a notice in this regard. Because this issue is related to the electoral process.
Meanwhile, the petition also demanded that if a candidate gets less than NOTA votes, he or she should be barred from contesting elections for the next five years.
The petition claimed that the most significant changes in the form of NOTA have been observed in Maharashtra, Haryana, Delhi, Puducherry.
The State Election Commissions of these states have announced that if NOA wins any election i.e. the maximum number of votes falls in NOTA, then fresh elections will be held there.
NOTA is assumed to be a hypothetical candidate in these states. In a notification, the Election Commission of states said that if THE NOTA gets the maximum number of votes, it is in violation of the intention of the NOTA to declare the second-placed candidate the winner.
The PIL filed in the Supreme Court said the Supreme Court had hoped that the addition of NOTA would increase voter participation in the elections.
But that doesn’t seem to be the case. In order to achieve this objective, the efforts taken by the State Election Commission like Maharashtra, Haryana, Delhi, Puducherry have to be implemented by the Election Commission of the country.
Supreme Court verdict on EVM-VVPAT
The Election Commission of India has received a major relief from the Supreme Court at the end of the hearing of the VVPAT case which lasted for several days.
Amid the ongoing second phase of Lok Sabha elections, the Supreme Court dismissed all petitions seeking 100 per cent matching of votes cast through EVMs with VVPAT slips.
Not only this, the demand for re-polling through ballot papers was also rejected. Justice Sanjiv Khanna said that we have dismissed all petitions related to VVPAT.
Justice Sanjiv Khanna on the order asked the Election Commission to keep the symbol loading unit safe for 45 days. The court further said that the readymade system cannot be blindly questioned.
If a candidate demands a trial, then his expenses should be recovered from him, if there is any tampering in the EVM, then the expenses will have to be refunded to him.
In fact, several organisations had filed petitions in the Supreme Court demanding 100 per cent merger of EVM and VVPAT slips. During the previous hearing, a bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna had reserved its decision in the Supreme Court.
Justice Dipankar Datta was also included in the bench. Earlier on Wednesday, the court had called up an official of the Election Commission of India and clarified some technical aspects related to the functioning of EVMs.
Last week, the bench had reserved its decision on a number of PIL cases (PILs) in the matter. He said government laws are generally considered valid under the Indian Evidence Act and not all the work done by the Election Commission cannot be doubted.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, the second highest MP in the central government, criticised the petitioners for repeatedly submitting the PIL on the eve of the elections, saying the democratic choice of voters has been turned into a joke.
He said the Supreme Court has already dismissed a similar plea seeking relief in the matter.