 bill no xxvi of 2002 the compulsory voting  bill, 2002 a billto provide for compulsory voting by the electorate in the country and for matters connected therewithbe it enacted by parliament in the fifty-third year of the republic of india as follows:—1 (1) this act may be called the compulsory voting act,  2002(2) it extends to the whole of indiashort title, extent and commencement5(3) it shall come into force on such date as the central government may, by notificationin the official gazette, appointcompulsory voting by electorate2 notwithstanding anything contained in the representation of the people act,1951 or any other law for the time being in force every voter shall exercise his right to vote compulsorily when called for by the election commission in an election to lok sabha or legislative assembly of a state as the case may be:provided that a voter may be exempted from exercising his right to vote only when he becomes incapable of voting due to sickness or infirmity and unable to move or he is physically incapacitated from an illness of a serious nature and produces a medical certificate from a registered medical practitioner testifying to such incapacity53 the election commission shall arrange for adequate mobile booths in eachconstituency for casting of votes by those persons who are not in a position to cast their votes as polling boothsspecialarrangement for mobile boothspenalty4 (1) any voter who fails to cast his vote at any election when called by electioncommission shall be liable to fine of rupees one hundred or one day imprisonment or both10(2) if failure to cast the vote by voter at any election when called by electioncommission is by deliberate avoidance, he shall be liable to forfeiture of his ration card and will be debarred from contesting any election for a period of six years from the date of his conviction15(3) if such eligible voter being an employee of the union government or any publicsector undertaking owned or controlled by union government fails to cast the vote at any election called by election commission by deliberate avoidance, he shall be punished also with forfeiture of four days salary and delay in promotion for at most a period of one yearincentives for casting vote205  any voter who inspite of his illness or physical incapacity has cast his vote at anelection or any person who has cast his vote at all elections held during a period of twenty year preceding the commencement of this act without any break shall be—(a) provided with a certificate of reward of value of rupees one thousand; (b) given preference in jobs in services under the central government; and (c) given preference in admission to the institutions of higher technical educationpower to make rules256 the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, make rules forcarrying out the purposes of this act statement of objects  and  reasonsit is a very sad feature that the number of voters who cast their votes is far less than those who are eligible most of the time the average number of votes polled is around 50 per cent it is a glaring commentary on the responsibility of citizens that the fate of the country's democratic institutions has been left to be decided by about 50 per cent of the electorate since the trend of voting from time to time does not show any appreciable increase in the number of those who exercise their franchise, time has come to ensure that all the citizens exercise their sovereign right to choose their representatives, so that the elections may reflect the will of the whole electorate and not merely a part of it in 11th lok sabha, in number of states, the voting was less than 40 per cent, and in number of cases people had boycotted elections and thus did not vote deliberatelywith a view to increasing the voting percentage, the present bill purpose to make it compulsory for every eligible voter to vote and provide for exemption only in cases where the voter is physically incapacitated due to illness of serious nature in these cases also election commission shall arrange for mobile booths for those who are unable to cast their votes at polling boothssince the provision is being made compulsory, punishment is also sought to be given to those who do not vote at elections however, reward is also proposed to be given to those persons who vote at elections inspite of their illness or without any breakhence this billt subbarami  reddy financial  memorandumclause 3 of the bill provides that the election commission shall make arrangements for mobile vans for the purpose of casting of votes by those persons who are not in a position to cast their votes at polling booths in each constituency clause 5 of the bill provides for certificate of reward of value of rupees one thousand to those persons who inspite of their illness or physical incapacity exercise their right to vote at an election or to those who exercise their right at all elections held during a period of twenty years without any breakthis bill, if enacted, will involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of indiait is likely to involve a recurring expenditure of about rupees one crore per annuma non-recurring of about rupees one lakh is also likely to be involved memorandum regarding delegated legislationclause 6 of the bill empowers the central government to make rules for carrying out the purpose of the bill which will relate to matters of detail only the delegation of legislative power is therefore, of a normal character—————abillto provide for compulsory voting by the electorate in the country and for matters connected therewith—————(dr t subbarami reddy, mp)mgip(plu)mrnd—382rs—19-04-2002