New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday said that it cannot order legislature to make or amend a law within a particular time frame and granted eight weeks time to the Centre to effect changes in statutes for extending voting rights to NRIs through postal ballots.
However, the Election Commission, which found it feasible to give voting rights to NRIs, did not favour extending same benefit to migrants in the country.
"Scheme of the Representation of People Act is that a person can be enrolled only at the place where he is ordinarily resident, the question of any person migrating to a different place from his native place, enrolling himself in the electoral roll of his native place does not arise," the poll panel said in an affidavit.
During hearing today, Additional Solicitor General P L Narasimha, appearing for the Centre, sought some more time for making changes in the statue for extending voting rights to Non Resident Indians (NRIs), saying that certain amendments are required to be carried out and the Law Ministry is working on them after considering the recommendations of the poll panel on the issue.
"We believe in the statement of the Additional Solicitor General...We cannot ask the legislature to finish it in a time frame," a bench comprising Chief Justice H L Dattu and Justice Arun Mishra said, adding, "In case of difficulty, you (Centre) can come back to us".
Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for one of the petitioners, sought early amendment in the law and said that in Kerala, 70 per cent persons are NRIs and they be given this right as they contribute so much to the country.
The court is hearing a batch of petitions filed by Nagender Chindam, who is the Chairman of London-based Pravasi Bharat organization and other NRIs including Shamsheer VP on the issue.
The PILs have said that 114 countries have adopted external voting and among them are 20 Asian countries. It said the external voting could be held by setting up polling booths at diplomatic missions, or by postal, proxy or electronic voting.
Earlier, the Centre had told the apex court that the EC's recommendation to extend voting rights to NRIs through postal ballots have been accepted in letter and spirit and now the law has to be changed accordingly.
