No whataboutery can justify disenfranchising millions: SC judge Ujjal Bhuyan amid SIR row

His remarks come amid reports of large-scale deletions during the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and allegations that eligible voters are being targeted for removal.

In Short

• Justice Bhuyan says voting right is inseparable from citizenship
• He says no authority or court can override Article 326 on adult suffrage
• He argues that universal franchise reflects India's democratic values

Supreme Court Justice Ujjal Bhuyan has warned that taking away Indian citizens’ voting rights on a large scale would strike “at the very heart of the Constitution” and reduce them to “second class citizens in their own country”.

His remarks come amid reports of large-scale deletions during the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and allegations that eligible voters are being targeted for removal.

Speaking at an event at NALSAR, Justice Bhuyan said any process that disenfranchises millions of Indians is intrinsically arbitrary and no amount of whataboutery can justify it.

“It strikes at the very heart of the Constitution and I would go to the extent of saying that it is a negation of the constitutional order which we have adopted under the Constitution of India," he said.

Justice Bhuyan said wholesale disenfranchisement would violate Articles 326 and 14 of the Constitution.

“The Indian Constitution does not provide for two classes of citizens: citizens with voting rights and citizens without voting rights,” he said.

Article 326 provides for elections based on adult suffrage, entitling Indians aged 18 and above to register as voters. Article 14 guarantees equality before the law and equal protection of the laws, and guards against arbitrary state action.

Justice Bhuyan said no authority could tamper with Article 326 and no court could condone it, stressing that no one is above the Constitution.

He said the right to vote is central to the Constitution’s basic structure and cannot be separated from citizenship. Taking away a citizen’s right to vote or to be included in the electoral roll, he said, would be “like taking out the soul from the body”.

He said voting gives every adult citizen a voice in governance, regardless of their background or social status.

Justice Bhuyan also recalled BR Ambedkar’s argument that adult suffrage should be written into the Constitution rather than left to the whims of parliamentary legislation.

He said the Constituent Assembly’s decision to adopt universal adult franchise reflected India’s long struggle against foreign rule and its commitment to democracy.

- Ends