The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to the Central government and the Election Commission of India (ECI) on a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking to address the vacuum in Section 62(5) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (RPA) — a provision that imposes a blanket ban on voting by all prisoners, including undertrials who have not been convicted.

A Bench of Chief Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice K. Vinod Chandran sought responses on the plea filed by Sunita Sharma, represented by advocate Prashant Bhushan, seeking the framing of the guidelines and conditions to prevent the disenfranchisement of all the prisoners.

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“This concerns nearly five lakh undertrial prisoners,” Bhushan told the Bench.

The petition does not challenge the constitutionality of Section

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