Supreme Court issues notice to EC on plea for fresh election if NOTA gets maximum votes

The Supreme Court on April 26 issued a notice to the Election Commission on a plea seeking the court's direction to invalidate the election results of a particular constituency if the maximum votes are polled for the None of The Above (NOTA) category.

The plea further urged the court to frame rules to declare NOTA as a 'fictional candidate', and bar candidates from contesting the by-election that will be held after the cancellation of the first election.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra agreed to consider the issues raised by petitioner Shiv Khera.

NOTA was introduced in the Electronic Voting Machines following a direction issued by the Supreme Court in 2013 in a PIL filed by the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL).

NOTA gives the option to the voter to reject all candidates as unsatisfactory.

However, as per the existing law, there is no legal consequence if NOTA gets the majority.
Currently, If NOTA gets the most number of votes in a constituency, the next candidate with the second-most number of votes is declared the winner.

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