Compulsory Voting Bill : Advantages and Pitfalls By Deepak Parvatiyar The Gujarat Governor O.P.Kohli’s assent to a controversial bill that was passed twice by the state assembly but was languishing for five years has sparked furious debate over the citizen’s right to vote across the country. The bill in question – The Gujarat Local Authorities Laws (Amendment) Bil – 2009 – provides voting to be compulsory in local body elections. The same bill stipulates 50 per cent reservation for women in all local body elections. The legislation empowers the state government to take punitive action against the non-voters in local body elections. However, it was twice returned by Kohli’s immediate predecessor, Dr. Kamla Beniwal, on grounds that the Bill violated the “freedom which a citizen is entitled to enjoy under Article 21 of the Constitution”. She had then advised the Government against entering into “a controversy to compel voters to act against their conscience
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