Online voting may need to be examined due to coronavirus: Additional Solicitor General

Additional Solicitor General Satya Pal Jain has suggested that election laws may need to be amended with the possible introduction of online voting as social distancing has become a necessity due to COVID-19.

In the current situation, it may not be possible to permit voting in polling booths where people assemble in large numbers and the government may have to examine introducing online voting or postal voting to avoid large scale gatherings in polling booths, he opined.

Jain was addressing a webinar on Thursday organised by Panjab University here on Election Laws in India.

Jain, who is also a senior BJP leader, pointed out that the Election Commission itself over the last two months had to adjourn voting in the Rajya Sabha elections in various states to prevent violation of social distancing norms even where only limited number of MLAs were to vote.

"Therefore, how can it conduct elections in various states where lakhs and lakhs of people have to vote, divided into hundreds of ...