The Congress on Sunday pushed for making the right to vote a fundamental right, arguing that such a move would provide stronger safeguards against voter suppression and arbitrary disqualifications that have occurred in different states in "astronomical numbers" under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the "blatantly partisan functioning" of the Election Commission of India, which he alleged was "working at the behest" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, had been "brutally exposed". He said it was now time to elevate the right to vote as a fundamental right, giving it the highest level of judicial review and protection.
Ramesh referred to a recent Supreme Court ruling in which a two-judge bench declared the right to walk on a footpath as a fundamental right under the Constitution. He questioned why the right to vote, which he described as crucial for democracy, should not receive similar recognition.
The Congress leader recalled that the Constituent Assembly had formed an Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights, Minorities and Tribal and Excluded Areas under the chairmanship of Sardar Patel. During its meeting on April 21-22, 1947, the committee saw an extensive discussion on whether the right to vote should be made a fundamental right.
According to Ramesh, Dr B R Ambedkar and Babu Jagjivan Ram had strongly supported making the right to vote a fundamental right, while Sardar Patel, C Rajagopalachari and others argued that such a move could make princely states hesitant to join the Indian Union. They believed that providing universal adult franchise in the Constitution would be sufficient.
"Sardar Patel himself took the position that universal adult franchise was, in itself, an implicit fundamental right. This is the background to Article 326 which provides for elections based on universal adult suffrage," Ramesh said.
He said the debate over whether the right to vote is a statutory right under the Representation of People Act, 1951, or an explicit fundamental right has continued for more than seven decades.
"Different views have been expressed. Most recently, Justice Ajay Rastogi in a dissenting opinion in the Anoop Baranwal vs Union of India judgement of March 2023 held that the right to vote is a fundamental right," Ramesh said.
He added that the Supreme Court had already recognised several rights linked to voting, including voters’ right to know the criminal background of candidates, their financial interests and sources of political funding.
"It has protected ballot secrecy and recognized the right to reject all candidates through NOTA. It is, therefore, all the more anomalous that the right to vote remains only a statutory right. All surrounding rights have been declared fundamental but the core without which the former cannot exist still remains statutory," he argued.
Ramesh said elevating the right to vote would strengthen democratic safeguards.
"With the blatantly partisan functioning of the Election Commission of India working at the behest of the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister having been brutally exposed, it is now time to elevate the right to vote as a fundamental right that would offer it the highest level of judicial review and protection," he said.
"It would be a powerful step in putting in place safeguards against voter suppressions or arbitrary disqualifications that have taken place in different states in astronomical numbers under the SIR (special intensive revision) process. It would also mean greater Supreme Court vigilance over the functioning of the Election Commission," Ramesh added.
Earlier on Friday, after the Supreme Court ruled that the right to walk on a demarcated footpath is a fundamental right, Ramesh had asked, "how about declaring the Right to Vote also a fundamental right as it is of paramount importance in order to save Indian democracy from its present "death spiral"."
The Supreme Court, in the footpath case, held that the right to walk on a demarcated footpath would have priority over motorised vehicles and forms part of the right to movement under Article 19(1)(d) and other fundamental rights, including Article 21.
A bench of Justices P S Narasimha and A S Chandurkar ruled that a citizen’s fundamental right to walk on a demarcated footpath is primary and should take precedence over the movement of motorised vehicles.
(With inputs from PTI)