Peoples Union for Civil Liberties v Union of India: Is Indian democracy dependent on a statute?

• Main Author: DAM, Shubhankar
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2004
• Subjects: Constitutional rights; Democracy; Voting; Legal system; Courts; India; Asian Studies; Constitutional Law; Law and Politics; Public Law and Legal Theory
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/3904; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sol_research/article/5862/viewcontent/Is_Indian_Democracy_Dependent_on_a_Statute_av.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

What is the status of a right to vote in the Indian legal system? Is the right a constitutional/fundamental right? Or is it simply a statutory right? Contrary to the decisions of the Supreme Court in the last five decades, this paper argues that the right to vote is a constitutional right: its textual foundation may be located in Article 326. And, in this sense, the Supreme Court has erred in construing the right to vote as a statutory right under the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951. Interpreting the right to vote as a statutory right has larger implications for the nature of Indian democracy. If the Court is correct is construing the right as a statutory one, it would follow that democracy may be extinguished by a simple amendment of the Representation of Peoples Act. Under the Court's current jurisprudence, that which could not be achieved by a constitutional amendment may now be achieved by an amendment of an ordinary statute.