A Critical Examination Of The Fundamentalness Of The Non-Fundamental Right To Vote

Krishna Keerthan. S, LL.M, School of Law, CHRIST (Deemed to be University)

ABSTRACT

Free speech is often regarded as one of the pillars of the foundation of any democracy. It is regarded as the ultimate criterion for genuine autonomy and guarantees the constitutional goal of liberty enshrined in our Constitution's preamble. The right to vote is a basic right of a citizen to voice his view of supporting any particular individual or political party contesting in a democratic election. It allows such citizens to assert that such a vote of his/her in bringing such person or political party to power will aid in the growth and development of the country. However, such a valuable right finds no express mention under Part III of the Constitution, which thus shifts the focus towards the Indian judiciary to bridge the lacuna.

In contrast, the judiciary has not interpreted right to vote as equal to the status of a fundamental right under freedom of speech and expression, which raises severe concerns over the constitutional ethos and values that uphold democracy in India. The current position has held this right only to the extent of being afforded limited constitutional and statutory protection, neither of which are not at par with the protections guaranteed to a fundamental right. Therefore, an attempt has been made by this paper to critically analyse the need to re-examine the non-recognition of the right to vote as a fundamental right in light of judicial interpretations which have not categorically addressed the issue, thus ignoring one of the most core aspects of any democracy. Lastly, the paper also presents certain inspired speculations on the impact of treating the right to vote as a fundamental right, which the author believes will reaffirm the faith of the ordinary citizen in what is regarded as the most spiritual form of governance, that is, democracy.