In India, voting cannot remain merely a statutory right

The article discusses the ongoing constitutional debate regarding the status of the right to vote in India. Traditionally held as a statutory right based on Supreme Court judgments like N.P. Ponnuswami (1952) and Jyoti Basu (1982), the Court's recent jurisprudence has constitutionalized various facets of voting. Decisions in cases like Association for Democratic Reforms (2002), People’s Union of Civil Liberties (2003), and the NOTA judgment (2013) have linked the right to know about candidates, freedom of informed choice, and the right to reject all candidates to the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression (Article 19(1)(a)). The article highlights the anomaly where the act of voting remains statutory while its essential components are fundamental, especially given that democracy and free and fair elections are part of the Constitution's basic structure (Kesavananda Bharati, Indira Nehru Gandhi cases) and Article 326 guarantees universal adult suffrage. It argues for revisiting the doctrine to recognize the core right to vote as a fundamental right.