On December 18, 2017, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad introduced The Representation Of The People (Amendment) Bill, 2017, in the Lok Sabha. As a two-page Bill, it is fairly short in comparison to bills running into nearly a hundred pages. The brevity of the Bill may even tempt legislators to dismiss it as a mere technical amendment.
However, this small document, once passed, can significantly alter the manner in which electoral politics is carried out in India, as it provides legal sanction to ‘proxy voting’ for elections.