Cast your vote in interest of nation: Legal experts
Bribing voters in any form is an offence.
Chennai: “Right to Vote” is not only a statutory right of a citizen of a country but also an integral part of the right of a citizen to participate in the making of a state.
Therefore, a duty is cast on the citizen to exercise his or her franchise in the state Assembly elections, scheduled for May 16.
Though, the law does not make it mandatory for citizen to exercise the right to vote, in the interest of the country, it is necessary for every citizen to exercise this right without being influenced by extraneous considerations, say legal luminaries.
“In India, we have adopted the system of “adult suffrage” which means every adult, irrespective of his/her caste, creed, race, religion or sex, shall have the voting right. Though the law does not make it mandatory for the citizen to exercise the right to vote, because of the importance of this right, in the interest of the country and also in their own interest, it is necessary for very citizen to exercise this right without being influenced by extraneous factors like bribe, caste or creed of the contestants”, says senior advocate A.Sirajudeen.
Bribing voters in any form to influence their voting pattern or accepting consideration for exercising the voting in favour of any person or party is an offence.
“The Representation of the People Act does not compel voters to compulsorily vote. Though, the right has been conferred or recognised on voters enabling them to exercise their voting rights, there is no statutory obligation on them to exercise their voting right.
But, as a responsible citizen of the greatest democracy in the world, it is the constitutional obligation of voters to exercise their voting rights in the matter of choosing their representatives. In case none of the contestants are preferred by them, a provision, Nota, has been incorporated now to convey their mind that they do not prefer anyone, said Sirajudeen.
Abudukumar Rajarathinam, a former additional public prosecutor, said it is the duty of every citizen to exercise their franchise and there is a lot of awareness in social media on the need to cast their vote. Since the elected representatives govern our country, it is imperative for us to cast our vote. It is also our duty to find out the right candidates and to vote the right party, since elections are held only once in five years. The people should be vigilant against any political party attempting to bribe voters.