The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday declined to entertain a PIL petition seeking a direction to the Election Commission of India to provide facilities to the Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to cast their votes in their respective residing countries in the elections to the State Legislative Assembly.
A vacation Division Bench comprising Justice Krishna S. Dixit and Justice Vijayakumar A. Patil passed the order rejecting the petition filed by 39-year-old Ravi M., founder and joint secretary of Sagarottara Kannadigaru Association, which is a registered organisation in the United Kingdom. The petitioner, who hails from Bengaluru, is working as a registered nurse in Saudi Arabia and at present he is in the city.
It was pointed out in the petition that the petitioner gave a representation to the Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka, on April 17 seeking facility for NRIs to vote, in the countries in which they are at present residing, either through postal ballot or by setting up polling booth in the respective embassies.
The petitioner claimed that countries like Italy and Philippines allow their citizens abroad to cast their votes through the Embassy.
