Overview

• A bench of Chief Justice B. R. Gavai and Justice K. Vinod Chandran issued notice to the Union Government and the Election Commission on a PIL filed by Sunita Sharma, with Prashant Bhushan appearing for the petitioner.
• The plea challenges Section 62(5) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which bars all persons confined in prisons from voting regardless of conviction status.
• It seeks directions to set up polling stations inside prisons for local electors and to allow postal ballots for inmates lodged outside their home constituencies or states.
• The proposal limits exclusions to prisoners convicted or detained for electoral or corruption-related offences, rejecting a blanket disenfranchisement.
• Citing about 4.5 lakh non-finally convicted inmates and the fact that roughly 75% of prisoners are undertrials, the petition invokes the presumption of innocence, the ICCPR, and comparative practice, including undertrial voting in Pakistan.