He said the right to vote or to be included in the voters’ list could not be separated from the status of an Indian citizen.
“It will be like taking out the soul from the body,” he said.
Bhuyan said that while the Supreme Court had held in several judgments that the right to vote was not a fundamental right, it had recognised voting as a constitutional right.
“In my view, the right of an Indian citizen to cast his vote is central to the basic structure doctrine itself,” he said.
‘Right to vote intertwined with freedom struggle’
The judge also linked the right to vote with India’s independence struggle, saying it represented the freedom achieved after years of struggle and sacrifice.
“Indian citizens’ right to vote is intertwined with India’s long years of struggle against foreign rule. It is a manifestation of our freedom achieved after so much of struggle and sacrifice. Article 326 cannot be tinkered with at all,” he said.
Bhuyan also invoked the principle of political equality, saying that the value of an individual’s vote did not depend on their wealth or social standing.
“One may be a billionaire, and one may be a rickshaw puller; yet both will have their votes, and the value of their votes would be equal,” he said.
Quoting former US Supreme Court justice Felix Frankfurter’s observation that the highest office in a democracy is that of the citizen, Bhuyan questioned the value of citizenship without the right to vote.
“And what is the worth of a citizen without her voting right,” he asked.
