Hyderabad: At a time when there are widespread protests demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, Supreme Court judge Justice Ujjal Bhuyan on Sunday criticised the mass voter exclusion following the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Justice Bhuyan said any exercise that leads to the disenfranchisement of millions of Indian citizens, making them “second class citizens in their own country” by denying them the right to vote, is “intrinsically arbitrary”.
“No amount of whataboutery can justify it,” said Justice Bhuyan.
He warned that such a process would strike at the very heart of the Constitution and amount to “a negation of the constitutional order which we have adopted under the Constitution of India”.
Justice Bhuyan, who was delivering the valedictory address of the 19th NALSAR-Justice BR Sawhney Memorial Moot Court Competition in Hyderabad, stressed that the Constitution does not envisage two classes of citizens — those with voting rights and those without them.
Justice Bhuyan warned against any administrative exercise that undermines the constitutional guarantee of adult suffrage. He pointed out that the right to vote is not a mere statutory entitlement but a constitutional right integral to citizenship and the democratic order.
“Theoretically, citizenship and franchise are intertwined; one cannot be divorced from the other,” he said.
The SIR exercise, completed in a majority of states and UTs, is facing legal and political scrutiny, following the deletion of lakhs of names from electoral rolls.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant has sought the Election Commission of India’s response to petitions challenging the SIR process and questioned the basis on which such notices were being issued.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear SIR-related petitions on October 5.