 bill no 52 of 2009 the compulsory voting bill, 2009 byshrimati supriya sule, mp a billto provide for compulsory voting by the electorate in the country and for matters connected therewithbe it enacted by parliament in the sixtieth year of the republic of india as follows:—1 (1) this act may be called the compulsory voting act, 2009short title, extent and commencement(2) it extends to the whole of india(3) it shall come into force on such date as the central government may, by notificationin the official gazette, appoint543 of 1951compulsory voting by every eligible citizen2 notwithstanding anything contained in the representation of the people act, 1951or any other law for the time being in force, every citizen, who is eligible to vote at an election, shall exercise his right to vote compulsorily when called for by the election commission in an election to the house of the people or legislative assembly of a state, as the case may be:10provided that a voter may be exempted from exercising his right to vote if he is physicallyincapacitated due to an illness of a serious nature and produces a certificate from a registered medical practitioner certifying such incapacitymobile polling booths for casting votes by certain citizens3 the election commission shall arrange for adequate number of mobile polling booths in each constituency for casting of votes by citizens who are unable to cast their votes in polling booths due to illness or such reasons, as may be prescribed by rules made under this actpunishment54 any citizen, who fails to cast his vote, shall be liable to—(i) a fine of rupees one hundred, or one day's imprisonment or both; (ii) forfeiture of his ration card; and (iii) be rendered ineligible for contesting any election for a period of six yearsfrom the date of his conviction, in case of deliberate avoidance:10provided that if such citizen is an employee of the central government or any publicsector undertaking owned or controlled by the central government, he shall also be punished with—(a) forfeiture of four days salary; and (b) delay in promotion for a minimum period of one year15incentives for voting5 any citizen who inspite of his illness or physical incapacity, exercises his right tovote at an election or any citizen who has exercised his right to vote at all elections held during a period of twenty years preceding the commencement of this act without any break or who exercises his right to vote at all elections for a period of not less than fifteen years without break after the commencement of this act, shall be—20(i) given a cash reward of rupees one thousand;(ii) given preference in jobs in services under the central government; and (iii) given preference in admission to the institutions of higher technicaleducationpower to make rules256 (1) the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, make rulesfor carrying out the purposes of this act30(2) every rule made under this act shall be laid as soon as may be after it is made, before each house of parliament, while it is in session, for a total period of thirty days which may be comprised in one session or in two or more successive sessions, and if, before the expiry of the session immediately following the session or the successive sessions aforesaid, both houses agree in making any modification in the rule or both the houses agree that the rule should not be made, the rule shall thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be; so, however, that any such modification or annulment shall be without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that rule statement of objects and reasonsit is a very sad feature of our democracy that in most of the elections the number of voters who cast their votes is far less than those who are eligible to vote the average number of votes polled is around fifty per cent it does not reflect well on the responsibility of the citizens that the fate of the country's democratic institutions is left to be decided by only fifty per cent of the electorate since the trend of voting during elections has not so far shown any appreciable increase in the number of voters who exercise their franchise, the time has come to bring forward a legislation making it compulsory for every voter to exercise his right to vote in order to ensure that all the citizens exercise their sovereign right to choose their representatives so that the elections reflect the will of the whole electorate and not merely a part of itwith a view to increasing the voting percentage, the present bill proposes to make it compulsory for every eligible voter to vote during elections and provides for exemption only in cases where the voter is physically incapacitated due to illness of serious nature and produce a certificate to this effect from a registered medical practitioner the bill also provides for arrangement of mobile booths for those who are unable to go to polling booths due to illness or certain other reasonssince casting of vote is being made compulsory, punishment is also sought to be given to those who do not vote at elections however, cash reward and other incentives are also proposed to be given to those persons who vote at elections inspite of their illness or have been voting in successive elections without any breakhence the billnew delhi;supriya  sulejune 30, 2009 financial memorandumclause 3 of the bill provides that the election commission shall make arrangements for mobile polling booths 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 cash reward 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 india it is likely to involve a recurring expenditure of about rupees one crore per annuma non-recurring expenditure 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 purposes of the bill, which will  relate to matters of detail only the delegation of legislative power is, therefore, of a normal character lok sabha————a billto provide for compulsory voting by the electorate in the country and for matters connected therewith————(shrimati supriya sule, mp)gmgipmrnd—2710ls (s5)—10-07-2009