 bill no 164 of  2014 the compulsory voting bill, 2014 by shri chandrakant khaire, mp a billto provide for compulsory voting by the electorate in the country and for matters connected therewithbe it enacted by parliament in the sixty-fifth  year of the republic of india as follows:—1 (1) this act may be called the compulsory voting act, 2014(2) it extends to the whole of indiashort title, extent and commencement(3) it shall come into force on such date as the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, appoint52 (1) on and from the date of commencement of this act, it shall be compulsory for every citizen, who is eligible to vote at an election, to exercise his right to vote at an election when called for by the election commission:voting to be compulsory for all citizensprovided that a citizen may be exempted from exercising his right to vote—(a) if he is physically incapacitated due to old age or an illness of a serious nature and produces  a medical certificate from a registered medical practitioner certifying such incapacity; or5(b) if he is physically challenged and is unable to go to a polling booth on his own; or(c) if she is a pregnant woman and not in a position to withstand the physical strain; or10(d) if he, in the opinion of the election commission, suffers from a disability or infirmity of a nature, which makes him incapable of going to the polling booth on his own; or(e) if he is undergoing indoor treatment in a hospital(2) notwithstanding anything in sub-section (1), the election commission may allow a suitable attendant to aid or  facilitate a citizen, exempted from exercising his right to vote, to exercise his right, if he makes a request to the election commission to this effect153 (1) it shall be the duty of the election commission to set up adequate number of polling booths at convenient locations, in every assembly and parliamentary constituencyadequate number of polling booths(2) the polling booths shall be set up in such a way that the distance between twopolling booths does not exceed one kilometre:20provided that in hilly, forest or desert regions, the election commission may set upmobile polling booths according to geographical convenience and density of population4 subject to such rules as may be prescribed, any citizen who is eligible to vote at an election and exercises his right to vote shall be provided with the following facilities:—facilities to be provided to persons who cast their vote25(a) foodgrains and other consumable items at subsidized rates through thepublic distribution system;(b) social security benefits including old age pension, disability pension andhealthcare facilities;punishment5 (1) the election commission shall cause to be prepared a list of names of all eligiblecitizens, who have not cast their votes, and submit it to the central government or the state government, as the case may be30(2) any citizen, who fails to cast his vote shall—(i) be liable to a fine of rupees five hundred for first failure and rupees tenthousand for each subsequent failure;(ii) be rendered ineligible to contest any election for a period of ten yearsfrom the date he failed to cast his vote;35(iii) be not eligible for any service under the government;(iv) be not eligible for any housing scheme launched by the government;(v) be not eligible to draw any foodgrain from public distribution system;and40(vi) be not eligible to subsidy in any form by the governmentpower to make rules6 (1) the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, make rules for carrying out the purposes of this act5(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 reasonsindia is the largest democracy in the world it has  a strong parliamentary systemsince 1951, free and fair elections to the houses of parliament, state legislatures and local  bodies have been held at  regular intervals indian  elections are a benchmark for many other countriesat present a candidate is declared as elected even if he secures one vote more than the votes polled to his nearest candidate though he has won the seat, yet he may not have the support of even half of the electors in the true sense, he is not representing the constituency from which he has been electedthe percentage of votes polled at every election is decreasing which shows that people are not willing to participate in the election process sometimes in some of the constituencies, as low as thirty per cent of the total votes are polledtherefore, it is proposed to make voting compulsory so that the people can participate in a large number it is also proposed to provide certain incentives to those voters who exercise their right to vote in elections to the house of the people or state legislatures it is also proposed to provide certain punitive measures to those who do not exercise their right to votehence this billnew delhi;chandrakant khairenovember 12, 2014 financial memorandumclause 3 of the bill provides for setting up of adequate number of polling booths in every constituency during election clause 4 provides for certain facilities to those voters who cast their votes at an election the bill, therefore, if enacted, will involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india it is estimated that an annual recurring expenditure of about rupees two hundred crore is likely to be involveda non-recurring expenditure of about rupees one hundred crore 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 since the rules will relate to matters of detail only, the delegation of legislative power is of a normal character———— a billto provide for compulsory voting by the electorate in the country and for matters connected therewith————(shri chandrakant khaire, mp)gmgipmrnd—2866ls(s3)—03122014