NOTA-(None of the above)

The Election Commission of India told the Supreme Court in 2009 that it wished to offer the voter a "None of the above" option at the ballot, which was something that the government had generally opposed. The People's Union for Civil Liberties, a non-governmental organisation, filed a Public-interest litigation statement in support of this.

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, noting that it would increase participation. The judges said that this "would lead to a systemic change in polls and political parties will be forced to project clean candidates". "Democracy is all about choices and voters will be empowered by this right of negative voting," said the order passed by a bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam.
The "none of the above" (NOTA) choice differs radically from "right to reject" (RTR). Although the votes registered as NOTA are counted, they will not change the outcome of the election process.

The Supreme Court ordered the Election Commission to provide a NOTA button on the voting machine which would give voters the option to choose "none of the above". The Election Commission has said that the judgement will be implemented immediately. Although frequently termed a "right to reject" in India, a former head of the Election Commission has noted that it is not in fact such a thing. The Election Commission also clarified that the NOTA votes are considered as invalid votes and will not be considered for determining the forfeiture of security deposit.


. The "none of the above" (NOTA) button that electronic voting machines will have from now on does not give you the 'the right to reject' all candidates.it is just "the right to register a negative opinion." The new provision does not mean that all candidates in a constituency stand rejected or defeated if the number of NOTA votes exceeds the number garnered by the highest vote-getter.


"Even if there are 99 NOTA votes out of a total of 100, and candidate X gets just one vote, X is the winner, having obtained the only valid vote. The rest will be treated as invalid or 'no votes', NOTA may not affect election results, the option would "ensure secrecy of the voter wanting to make a choice that amounts to abstention, and also to ensure that nobody casts a bogus vote in his place".


The only use of NOTA, is  that it would put "pressure political parties to nominate only good candidates."

"A voter may refrain from voting for several reasons, including the reason that he does not consider any of the candidates worthy of his vote. One of the ways of such expression may be to abstain from voting by not turning up at all, which is not an ideal option for a conscientious and responsible citizen. Thus, the only way by which it may be made effectual is by providing a button in the EVMs to express that right. This is the basic requirement if the lasting values in a healthy democracy have to be sustained, which the Election Commission has not only recognised but also asserted."

Let us start using Nota option more efficiently such that we could ask the honourable Supreme court of India to make the option NOTA stand counted with accordance to Right to reject(RTR) by which we could put a step forward towards clean politcs

Jai Hind
Vande Mataram

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