Stories
SC Justice Bhuyan: No Court Can Condone Mass Disenfranchisement, Right to Vote is Integral
- •Supreme Court Justice Ujjal Bhuyan stated that the right to vote is an integral part of the Constitution's basic structure and no authority can condone "wholesale disenfranchisement" of Indian citizens.
- •Justice Bhuyan emphasized that the right to vote and inclusion in electoral rolls are inseparable from citizenship, calling any process leading to mass disenfranchisement "intrinsically arbitrary."
- •He highlighted that the right of franchise is the "essence of citizenship" and the only way ordinary citizens participate in governance, stressing that Article 326, providing for adult suffrage, cannot be altered.
- •His remarks precede a Supreme Court hearing on petitions challenging the functioning of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and decisions related to the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
- •The petitions allege unilateral decisions by the CEC without concurrence from other Election Commissioners and seek scrutiny of the ECI's decision-making process, invalidation of decisions, and an inquiry into alleged deletions from electoral rolls.
Key Questions Answered
Supreme Court Justice Ujjal Bhuyan stated that the right to vote is an integral part of the Constitution's basic structure and the very essence of citizenship. He asserted that no authority or court can condone a process that results in the wholesale disenfranchisement of Indian citizens.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear two petitions challenging the functioning of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and decisions related to the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. The petitions allege that decisions regarding the revision were taken unilaterally without the concurrence of other Election Commissioners.
Justice Bhuyan emphasized that Article 326, which provides for elections based on adult suffrage, cannot be tinkered with at all by any authority or court. He noted that while the right to vote is not a fundamental right, it is a constitutional right flowing directly from Article 326.
