Right to vote should be a Fundamental Right: Jairam Ramesh

The right to vote should be recognised as a fundamental right to ensure the highest level of judicial review and protection, along with safeguards against voter suppression or arbitrary exclusions during exercises such as the “Special Intensive Revision” (SIR), senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said on Sunday (June 21, 2026).

Mr. Ramesh made the remarks in the context of the recent Supreme Court judgment declaring the right to walk on a footpath a fundamental right. Providing historical context on the evolution of fundamental rights and electoral provisions, he argued that while the apex court has already in the past recognised voters’ right to know candidates’ criminal records, financial interests and funding sources, and has protected ballot secrecy and enabled NOTA, but voting itself continues to remain a statutory right. “All related rights are fundamental, but not the core right they depend on,” he said.

He said elevating the right to vote has become essential in the present context. “With the blatantly partisan functioning of the Election Commission of India working at the behest of the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister having been brutally exposed, it is now time to elevate the right to vote as a fundamental right that would offer it the highest level of judicial review and protection,” he said.

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“It would be a powerful step in putting in place safeguards against voter suppression or arbitrary disqualifications that have taken place in different states in astronomical numbers under the SIR (special intensive revision) process. It would also mean greater Supreme Court vigilance over the functioning of the Election Commission,” he added.

Constituent Assembly debates

Referring to the Constituent Assembly debates, Mr. Ramesh said an Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights, Minorities and Tribal and Excluded Areas was set up under Sardar Patel. At its meeting on April 21–22, 1947, there was discussion on making the right to vote a fundamental right. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and Babu Jagjivan Ram supported the proposal, he said, while Sardar Patel, C. Rajagopalachari and others opposed it, arguing that such a move might deter princely States from joining the Union and that universal adult franchise in the Constitution would suffice.

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“Sardar Patel himself took the position that universal adult franchise was, in itself, an implicit fundamental right. This is the background to Article 326 which provides for elections based on universal adult suffrage,” he said.

Mr. Ramesh said there has long been a debate over whether the right to vote is purely statutory under the Representation of the People Act, 1951, or an explicit fundamental right. He cited Justice Ajay Rastogi’s dissenting opinion in the Anoop Baranwal vs. Union of India judgment of March 2023, which held that the right to vote is a fundamental right