A Bench of Chief Justice UU Lalit, Justices Ravindra Bhat and Bela M. Trivedi of the Supreme Court issued notice in a petition challenging Section 62(5) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which denies prisoners the right to vote. The case has been scheduled for December 09, 2022.

According to the petitioner, using incarceration as a yardstick to disenfranchise people has several drawbacks, including depriving under-trials of their right to vote because their innocence or guilt has not been proven conclusively. According to the petition, Section 62(5) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 is disproportionate, unreasonable, and discriminatory. According to the petition, due to the provision's overly broad language, even those detained in civil prison are denied the right to vote. As a result, there is no logical classification based on the purpose of imprisonment.

Furthermore, the petition claims that the right to vote is a constitutional right under Article 326 of the Constitution. As a result, any restriction on such a right must be based on permissible constraints found within the Constitution itself, and in the absence of such constraints, the restriction in question is ultra vires the Constitution.

The petition states that "Confinement in a prison, which is the yardstick used by the impugned provision, is not one of the constitutionally permissible restrictions to the right to vote under Article 326."

The petition further argues:  "The impugned provision operates in the nature of a blanket ban, as it lacks any kind of reasonable classification based on the nature of the crime committed or the duration of the sentence imposed (unlike several other jurisdictions such as South Africa, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Greece, Canada et al). This lack of classification is anathema to the fundamental right to equality under Article 14.”

As a result, the petitioner requested that the challenged provision be read down to ensure that it is consistent with the Constitution.

Case Details:-

WP(C) No. 462/2019

Aditya Prasanna Bhattacharya v. UoI and Ors.