New Delhi, June 8 -- India's blanket ban on prisoner voting under Section 62(5) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 ("RPA"), is facing renewed constitutional scrutiny in Sunita Sharma v. Union of India & Anr., W.P. (C) No. 909 of 2025. According to the Prison Statistics India by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), India houses over 450,000 undertrial prisoners, accounting for nearly 77 percent of its total prison population. These individuals, legally presumed innocent, remain excluded from the very process that defines their citizenship.

Section 62(5) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951-

"No person shall vote at any election if he is confined in a prison, whether under a sentence of imprisonment or transportat...