Voting Respite for Displaced Citizens

“The elections to the House of the People and to the Legislative Assembly of every State shall be on the basic of adult suffrage ;that is to say every person who is a citizen of India and who is not less than eighteen years of age on such date as may be fixed in that behalf by of under any law made by the appropriate Legislature and is not otherwise disqualified under this Constitution or any law made by the appropriate Legislature on the ground of non-residence, unsoundness of mind, crime or corrupt or illegal practice shall be entitled to be registered as a voter at any such election.”  – Representation of the People Act, 1950

A person shall be disqualified for registration in an electoral roll if he,- (universal adult suffrage)

(a) is not a citizen of India; or

(b) is of unsound mind and stands so declared by a competent Court; or

(c) is for the time being disqualified from voting under the provisions of any law relating to corrupt practices and other offences in connection with election.

The Postal Ballot system was employed earlier to facilitate voting for Government employees stationed away from their voting constituency. Recently the Postal Ballot System was used to provide voting rights for the displaced victims of Muzaffarnagar & Mizoram riots. 

Citizens displaced in riots, in most cases, not only lose their land but also lose their identity due to loss of authenticating documents. Their fundamental right to vote is conveniently ignored by the government for which addressing this issue would require cumbersome steps for their inclusion in the voter’s list. However, a 1999 ruling by the Delhi High Court stipulating voting rights for internally displaced citizens provided the legal framework on which the government has set up due procedure for enrolment & subsequent voting of internal refugees. 

Two recent cases exemplify this:

1.       The Reang (Bru) tribe of Mizoram

Tension stared in 1997 between the Mizo and Reang community (known as the Bru tribe), which is the second largest tribal group of Mizoram, because they demanded autonomy within Mizoram. Along with domestic violence, several other factors contributed to their deracination, including the systematic grouping of villages supervised by the armed forces and counter insurgency attacks (both, on land & aerial) by the Indian military. The Tripura Government reckons that 30,690 Reangs belonging to 6,859 families have fled into Tripura over a period of three years. Earlier there was significant Hindu population among the Reang (Bru) communities, but after the ethnic riots of 1990s, most of them migrated to Tripura and Assam. About 11,243 of the over 30,000 Reang tribal refugees living in the Kanchanpur and Panisagar refugee camps of Tripura for the past 17 years, are listed in Mizoram's electoral rolls. The EC conducted a postal ballot for the Bru tribals lodged in seven relief camps in Tripura for the single Lok Sabha seat from Mizoram recently as 71 percent of them voted amid mass protests & boycotts by six voluntary organisations and student groups.

2.       The victims of Muzaffarnagar riots

The clashes between the Hindu and Muslim communities in Muzaffarnagar district, Uttar Pradesh, in August - September 2013, resulted in at least 49 deaths and injured 93 and left more than 50,000 displaced. 

To facilitate enrolment of the people displaced during the riots in the electoral list, the Election Commission had launched a special drive in 22 villages where the riots victims have been rehabilitated. To ensure peaceful voting, women para military personnel and local police force have been deployed in riot affected villages of Phugana, Bhora Kala Bahawdi, Mohammadpur, Raisingh and Kharad. More than 2,331 riot victims who were displaced from their native villages have enrolled & will cast their vote on April 10 when the polling takes place in Muzaffarnagar.