New Delhi, Oct 4 (PTI) The Congress on Sunday cited Supreme Court judge Justice Ujjal Bhuyan’s remarks on the right to vote and claimed that his comment conclusively proves that the CEC has violated the Constitution both in letter and spirit.
The opposition party said Justice Bhuyan’s comment has exposed Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar “lock, stock and barrel”, and he has lost all moral right to continue in office.
Congress general secretary communications Jairam Ramesh shared a media report quoting Justice Bhuyan saying if any process results in disenfranchisement of millions of Indian citizens, rendering them second class citizens devoid of voting rights, such a process is intrinsically arbitrary.
“Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, has been an outspoken champion of environmental protection,” Ramesh said on X.
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 has simply lost all moral right to continue in office,” Ramesh asserted.
Speaking at an event at the NALSAR University of Law in Hyderabad, Justice Bhuyan said any process which disenfranchises millions of Indian citizens is intrinsically arbitrary, and a negation of constitutional order that no amount of “whataboutery” can justify it.
“If any process results in disenfranchising millions and millions of Indian citizens making them second class citizens in their own country… such a process is intrinsically arbitrary. No amount of whataboutery can justify it,” he said.
He said the Constitution does not provide for two classes of citizens — one with voting rights and the other without.
Any process which leads to wholesale disenfranchisement of Indian citizens making them citizens without voting rights would be violative of Articles 326 and 14 of the Constitution, Justice Bhuyan said.
The Congress’ attack on the CEC comes days after The Indian Express reported that election commissioners Sandhu and Joshi objected on record at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions and orders on the Special Intensive Revision process that they said were issued without their knowledge or recommendation.
Under fire over red flags raised by two of its commissioners, the EC has asserted that differing views and observations are a part of deliberations in any institution and all its orders carry full legal sanction and follow established statutory procedures.PTI ASK ARB
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