 bill no 278 of 2015 the representation of people (amendment) bill, 2015 by shri pralhad venkatesh joshi, mp a billfurther to amend the representation of people act,1951be it enacted by parliament in the sixty-sixth year of the republic of india as follows:—1 (1) this act may be called the representation of people (amendment) bill, 2015short title and commencement(2) it shall come into force on such date, as the central government may, by notificationin the official gazette, appoint543 of 1951amendment of section 622 in section 62 of the representation of the people act, 1951, for sub-section (5), the following sub-section shall be substituted, namely:—"(5) no person shall vote at any election if he is confined in a prison under a sentence of imprisonment or transportation after being convicted:10provided that nothing in this sub-section shall apply to a person subjected topreventive detention under any law for the time being in force or is in prison or police custody but has not yet been convicted" statement of objects and reasonssection 62(5) of the representation of the people act, 1951 governing the "right to vote", stipulates that no person shall vote in any election if he is confined in a prison under a sentence of imprisonment or transportation or otherwise or is in the lawful custody of the police the section was challenged before the supreme court as violative of articles 14 and 21, the right to equality and life in anukul chandra pradhan v union of india (july 1997) the court upheld the constitutionality of the sub-section (5) of section 62 on the rationale that it curbed criminalisation of politics article 14 of the constitution does permit the state to make classifications on the application of the law to persons, provided the classifications are reasonable and have a rational connection to the objective being sought to be achieved further, it took account of practical considerations and ruled that the additional resources that would be required to allow such persons to cast their vote justified the denial of the statutory right to votewith respect to the argument of criminalisation of politics, it is incorrect to treat persons who have not been convicted by a court of law as the same as those already convicted and carrying out their term of imprisonment criminal jurisprudence in india mandates the presumption of innocence unless proven guilty denying undertrials and persons in police custody the right to vote merely because of their location is clearly a violation of the right to equality and is arbitrarythe discrepancy in the law is heightened by the fact that persons out on bail can voteit is a sad reality in india that not all undertrials are accused of non-bailable offences often they are accused of bailable offence but do not have the resources to pay the surety and get bailwith the respect to the argument as to the high costs expended in the process of allowing undertrials and persons in police custody to cast their votes, it must be noted that the act already allows persons in preventive detention to cast their vote thus the same method of postal ballots may be extended to undertrials and persons in police custody e-balloting may also be used to allow such persons to cast their votethe national crime record bureau's latest figures reveal that there are 2,78,503undertrials in prisons at present, constituting more than two-thirds (676 per cent) of total persons in prisons disenfranchisement of such a large percentage of our citizenry will only further alienate them the right to vote lies at the very heart of the idea of full and effective citizenship and by denying voting rights to prisoners, the state effectively negates their citizenship statushence this billnew delhi;pralhad venkatesh joshinovember 18, 2015 annexureextract from the representation of people act, 1951no 43 of 1951   right to vote62 (5) no person shall vote at any election if he is confined in a prison, whether under a sentence of imprisonment or transportation or otherwise, or is in the lawful custody of the police:provided that nothing in this sub-section shall apply to a person subjected to preventive detention under any law for the time being in force    ———— a billfurther to amend the representation of people act,1951————(shri pralhad venkatesh joshi,  mp)gmgipmrnd—3046ls(s3)—02-12-2015