India being the planet’s largest democracy and for that very reason, the corner stone of democracy needs to be considered foremost. The cornerstone of a healthy and stable democracy is free will of people at the time of democratic process without any hardships. Right to vote is a right which till date has no legal profile, judicial jurisprudence have attempted in past to shape legal profile for it, but till date no exhaustive legal profiling exists. Right to vote can be considered as a statutory right which is being shielded by Constitution itself. The very reason for the said notion is that, the notion of voting right as a idea has taken birth out of article 326 of Indian Constitution, where the idea of universal franchise has been laid down but that very idea needed to be rectified on ground and right to vote be provided to the people and for this, parliament legislated Representation Of People’s Act, 1951, which legitimately laid down the conditions and provided the power to people to participate in electoral process of the country. Hon’ble Supreme Court has time to time via obiter dicta clarified to this very question, but those being mere opinions and not legally enforceable. The logic behind my contention on right to vote being a statutory right is that, there are prominently three landmark case laws which has opinions of judges on legal profiling of right to vote.
1- Anoop Baranwal V. Union Of India (2023)- Constitutional Bench (5 Judges)- Constitutional right.
2- Kuldip Nayar V. Union Of India (2006)- Constitutional Bench (5 Judges)- Statutory right.
3- N.P. Ponnuswami V. Returning Officer (1952)- Constitutional Bench (6 Judges)- Statutory right.
In reference to all this landmark cases, right to vote is differently profiled but, if we follow the basic notion of principle of precedents which suggests the idea that larger bench in terms of judges sitting for that particular matter cannot be override by smaller bench of judges sitting for that same particular matter. In recent times, judges of different courts have differ opinions about this particular matter but till date no binding exhaustive legal profiling of right to vote exists. From the layman’s language, if Constitution of India grantees you right to drive, then Motor Vehicle Act guaranteed you the power to drive, conditions, limitations etc, in the same manner Constitution of India provides a notion of voting rights but that notion is being evolved and provided as power by Representation Of People’s Act, 1951.