‘No Authority, No Court Can Condone It’: Justice Ujjal Bhuyan Warns Against Mass Voter Disenfranchisement

VoM News Desk | October 4, 2026 | 10:42 PM IST | Breaking News | Follow on Google News

‘No Authority, No Court Can Condone It’: Justice Ujjal Bhuyan Warns Against Mass Voter Disenfranchisement

HYDERABAD, October 4, 2026 [VoM News]: Supreme Court Justice Ujjal Bhuyan on Sunday has said that if the process leads to the exclusion of millions of Indian citizens from the electoral rolls, it will be “intrinsically arbitrary” and will be a negation of the constitutional order in India.

Justice Bhuyan delivered the valedictory address at the 19th NALSAR-Justice B.R. Sawhney Memorial Moot Court Competition at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, which had the theme of ‘Two Citizens – Two Governments’.

If any process denies millions and millions of Indian citizens citizenship status to the detriment of such millions and millions of Indian citizens, in the sense of being citizens without voting rights, such a process is by its very nature arbitrary, Justice Bhuyan said.

Justice Bhuyan emphasized that “right to vote” is an inseparable attribute of an Indian citizen and asked of separating it from the body is like “removing the soul from the body.” He also added that the provisions of Article 326 could not be challenged by any power and said “no one is above the Constitution”.

He further stated that no person, who has been already registered in an electoral roll, should be struck off without informing them and giving them a chance to be heard, except in the event of a voter’s death.

Justice Bhuyan did not mention an electoral-roll exercise, or the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision, in his comments. His comments, however, are in the wake of ongoing political and legal wrangling regarding the Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.

The Supreme Court, in May, allowed the legal validity of the SIR and the Election Commission’s mandate to revise it. The court observed that the exercise was aimed at upholding the constitutional right of free and fair elections, which depends on the accuracy and reliability of the electoral rolls.

In the May judgement, the Court also upheld that the SIR measures as such were not excessive or disproportionate and that the Election Commission had the power to conduct a limited inquiry regarding eligibility and also to include in electoral rolls.

In a general discussion on citizenship and voting rights, Justice Bhuyan discussed that the franchise was intertwined with the struggle of freedom and democratic equality assured by the Constitution of India.

The Supreme Court, while stating that voting is not a fundamental right, said that it is a constitutional right and Justice Bhuyan also shared a view that the right to vote of an Indian citizen is at the core of the Basic Structure doctrine.

The universal adult franchise is the embodiment of the constitutional equality thus the vote of the billionaire is equal to that of rickshaw puller, he said.

The comments have come at a time when the Election Commission’s legal right to carry out the SIR remains the supreme judicial rule, while the controversy over voter exclusion continues, and electoral-roll revisions are being revisited.

VoM News Desk

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