Justice Ujjal Bhuyan of the Supreme Court on Sunday called “a negation of the constitutional order” any process that takes away the voting rights of a huge number of Indian citizens. He asserted that “no authority can do it; no court can condone it”.
“If any process results in disenfranchising millions and millions of Indian citizens — making them second-class citizens in their own country in the sense of being citizens without voting rights — such a process is intrinsically arbitrary. No amount of whataboutery can justify it… The remarks come four months after the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Recent weeks have seen fresh questions by Opposition parties over the EC’s autonomy and intention. “From the persona of an Indian citizen, the right to vote or right to be included in the voters list cannot be detached.
“The Indian Constitution does not provide for two classes of citizens: citizens with voting rights and citizens without voting rights,” Justice Bhuyan said in a speech in Hyderabad. It strikes at the very heart of the Constitution,” he said. It will be like taking out the soul from the body,” the judge said. Citing US Supreme Court judge Felix Frankfurter’s view that the highest office in a democracy is not that of the President but that of the citizen, Justice Bhuyan quoted him as saying: “Democracy is always a beckoning goal, not a safe harbour; for freedom is an unremitting endeavour, never a final achievement.”
Justice Bhuyan was delivering the valedictory address at the 19th NALSAR-Justice BR Sawhney Memorial Moot Court Competition at NALSAR University of Law, where he earlier served as chancellor.
