Doubtful voter

Polity & Governance glossary

Also called: D-voter · Topic: Citizenship: Idea and Indian Law · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

A doubtful voter, or D-voter, is a person on Assam's electoral rolls whose citizenship is in question. Officials have marked such names with a "D" on Assam's voter lists since 1997. A D-voter cannot vote or stand in elections until a Foreigners Tribunal clears them. A Foreigners Tribunal is a body that acts like a court and decides whether a person is a foreigner. The category matters because a person can lose the vote, which is a basic right of citizenship (Art. 326), while their case is still undecided.

Example

A woman in Assam finds a "D" next to her name on the voter list. She cannot vote in the next election. She gets her vote back only if a Foreigners Tribunal rules that she is an Indian citizen.

Don't confuse with

  • Illegal migrant: this is a person found to be a foreigner who entered India without valid papers or stayed too long. A D-voter is only suspected, and their case is still waiting for a tribunal's decision.
  • Person left out of the NRC: this is someone missing from Assam's National Register of Citizens, the 2019 final list. That is a separate process from the "D" mark on voter lists.

Related concepts

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