Can’t seek votes on religion, race, caste, language: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that seeking votes on the basis of religion, race, caste or language of a candidate or his rival or even that of the voters is illegal and could jeopardise the electoral process.

A constitution bench headed by Chief Justice T.S. Thakur, by a 4:3 majority judgment, said on Monday that election was a secular exercise and the functioning of an elected representative too had got to be secular. The court said that religion had no place in the electoral process is essentially a secular activity and added that the government must be alive to the constitutional ethos and its obligations to uphold them.

The majority judgment came from Chief Justice Thakur, Justice Madan B. Lokur, Justice S.A. Bobde and Justice L. Nageswara Rao. Justice Lokur pronounced the judgment. Chief Justice Thakur also gave his additional reasons while concurring with the judgment.

While agreeing that seeking votes by invoking religion, race, caste, community and language was a corrupt practice, the dissenting judgment by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit said prohibiting people in electoral fray from speaking about the legitimate concerns of the people reduced democracy to abstraction.

Pointing out that there should be no judicial drafting of the law, Justice Chandrachud, speaking for the dissenting judges, said that no government system was “perfect”. There was also no law that prohibited dialogue and discussion on the issues that concerned voters and the same should not be construed as an appeal to gain votes, he said.