NOTA means “None of the Above” ballot option which enables the voter to officially register a vote of rejection for all candidates who are contesting, while maintaining their right of secrecy. NOTA or ”none of the above” option is provided in the elections to Indian voters. Through NOTA, a citizen has the right to not vote for any candidate contesting the elections. If a voter chooses to press NOTA on the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), it indicates that the voter has not chosen to vote for any of the party.

On 27 September 2013, the Supreme court of India ruled that the right to register a “none of the above” vote in elections should apply, while ordering the Election Commission of India (ECI) to provide a button for the same in the electronic voting machines. The judgment stated that not allowing a person to cast a vote negatively “defeats the very freedom of expression and the right ensured in Article 21 i.e., the right to liberty.”  The court also held the view that introducing the NOTA option would encourage larger voter participation and compel political parties to nominate a sound candidate, while protecting the voter’s right to secrecy while casting his/her ballot.

The Apex court bench under former Chief Justice P. Sathasivam said, “Negative voting will lead to a systemic change in polls and political parties will be forced to project clean candidates. If the right to vote is a statutory right, then the right to reject a candidate is a fundamental right of speech and expression under the Constitution.”

Prior to the introduction of the NOTA option, rule 49-O under the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, allowed voters to register a vote of disapproval or rejection if they felt none of the candidates were worth voting for. According to Rule 49-O, “If an elector, after his electoral number has been duly entered in the register of voters in Form17A and has put his signature or thumb impression thereon as required under sub-rule (1) of rule 49L, decided not to record his vote, a remark to this effect shall be made against the said entry in Form 17A by the presiding officer and the signature or the thumb impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark.” The officer would make a “Refused to Vote” remark against the voter’s name.

While Rule 49-O helped keep a check on bogus voting, the secrecy of the ballot was violated as the voter had to inform the presiding officer of his/her decision to not vote and an entry was made in the register against his/her name. This also put voters in the danger of being targetted or harassed by political parties and candidates.

The EC introduced the NOTA option for the first time in the 2013 Assembly elections of Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh. It inserted a particular symbol for ‘None of the Above’ option to allow the voters to exercise NOTA. This symbol appears in the last panel on all Electronic Voting Machines. The ECI while introducing NOTA indicated that although votes cast as NOTA are counted, they are invalid votes so they will not actually impact the result of the election process. NOTA is not a negative vote, but a neutral one that records a voter’s rejection of candidates, hence, it does not hold any value in the final tally. Therefore, whether NOTA gets more or less votes, it is not taken into account for calculating the total valid votes.

In January 2014, the Election Commission of India issued a circular stating that the provisions of NOTA should also be included in the Rajya Sabha elections as the provision was made available in the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) in 2013.

In 2018, the Supreme Court quashed the June 2014 notification of the Election Commission that had allowed use of the None Of The Above (NOTA) option in Rajya Sabha elections. The apex court said, “NOTA will destroy the concept of value of a vote and representation and encourage defection that shall open the doors for corruption which is a malignant disorder”. A Bench, led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra held that the NOTA option is meant only for universal adult suffrage and direct elections and not polls held by the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote as done in the Rajya Sabha.

The main objective of the ‘NOTA’ option is to enable electors who do not wish to vote for any of the candidates to exercise their right to reject without violation of the secrecy of their decision. The voter must be eligible to register a vote of rejection if they feel that the contesting candidates do not deserve to be voted for. The Right to vote granted to all citizens must allow the vote of disapproval.

The NOTA vote has had a crucial impact on the electoral outcome due to the votes it cuts from the political parties, and the resulting shift it creates in victory margins. While the margin may have been small in earlier elections, the discounted votes due to NOTA have remained significant.

BY ARUSHI SRALECH