Court seeks response from Centre, EC over prisoners' voting rights

The Delhi High Court on Friday asked the Centre, the Election Commission and the prisons authorities to file their reply on a plea seeking voting rights for all prisoners across the country.

A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V. Kameswar Rao asked the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Law and Justice and the authorities of Tihar Jail and other prisons to file their response.

The petition was filed by three law students, Praveen Kumar, Prerna Singh and Atul Kumar Dubey, seeking to facilitate voting rights to all those lodged in prisons across the country. The petitioners are students of Galgotias University in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

The petition sought that all the people in any kind of confinement, either in jails or police stations or at any other place, should be allowed to vote and requisite facilities for the same should be made available.

"The voting restriction imposed on the prisoners is contrary to freedom of expression, which is the live wire of democracy," said the plea filed by advocate Kamlesh Mishra.

--IANS

akk/arm/mr