No whataboutery can justify voter disenfranchisement: SC judge

New Delhi: Supreme Court Justice Ujjal Bhuyan on Sunday said any process that "disenfranchises millions of Indian citizens" is “intrinsically arbitrary” and a negation of the constitutional order.

The remarks were then cited by Opposition leaders to target Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. “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. 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,” Justice Bhuyan said.

He said the Constitution does not create two classes of citizens based on voting rights and added that wholesale disenfranchisement would violate Articles 326 and 14. “No authority can do it; no court can condone it. No one is above the Constitution,” he said. On deletion of names from electoral rolls, Bhuyan said, “Except in the case of a dead voter, the name of a voter once enlisted in the electoral roll cannot be deleted without notice and hearing. From the persona of an Indian citizen, the right to vote or right to be included in the voters list cannot be detached. It will be like taking out the soul from the body.”

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said Bhuyan’s remarks showed that the CEC had violated the Constitution “both in letter and spirit”. “Justice Bhuyan has said much more and has exposed the CEC lock, stock and barrel. Gyanesh Kumar simply has lost all moral right to continue in office,” Ramesh said. "Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, has been an outspoken champion of environmental protection.

Now the courageous jurist has forcefully expressed his view that the right to vote is very much part of the basic structure of the Constitution. This conclusively proves that the CEC—Constitutional functionary himself—has violated the Constitution itself both in letter and spirit," he said. "Justice Bhuyan has said much more and has exposed the CEC lock, stock and barrel.

Gyanesh Kumar simply has lost all moral right to continue in office," he added. TMC MP Mahua Moitra also praised Bhuyan, saying, “It’s easy for a judge to grow a spine the day he retires. It’s a first when a sitting judge speaks truth to power. Kudos to Justice Bhuyan.”

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The Hans India