Chandigarh : Months ahead of the high-stakes Assembly elections in Punjab, the Vidhan Sabha on Friday, October 23, unanimously passed a resolution calling for constitutional safeguards to protect voting rights of eligible citizens during the revision of electoral rolls under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.
The resolution, moved by state finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema, urged the Union government and relevant constitutional authorities to ensure transparency, impartial scrutiny of electoral roll discrepancies and accountability in the election process, IANS reported.
While speaking in the House, Cheema stated that protecting every eligible citizen’s right to vote was essential to strengthening Indian democracy. He noted that the Constitution was founded on the principles of equality, justice and the supremacy of the people.
“Articles 324, 325 and 326 play a pivotal role in supervising the electoral machinery, preventing discrimination in voter rolls and guaranteeing universal adult suffrage,” he said.
He also recalled the pre-Independence era, when voting rights were restricted to a select section of society. The Cabinet Minister paid tribute to Bharat Ratna Babasaheb Ambedkar for laying the constitutional foundation for equal voting rights for every adult citizen.
“The right to vote was a hard-won democratic privilege that enabled the poor, labourers, Dalits, minorities and all sections of society to participate equally in the governance of the country,” he said.
Addressing the House, Cheema expressed concerns over reports of large-scale deletions of names from electoral rolls and the exclusion of eligible voters and stated that the revision of electoral rolls had raised serious questions about the integrity of the electoral process in different parts of the country.
“Public confidence in democratic institutions could be maintained only by ensuring that no eligible voter was excluded and every citizen’s voting rights remained protected,” the Punjab minister said.
Talking about the past controversies surrounding electoral rolls in Delhi and other states, Cheema highlighted complaints that supporters of Opposition parties and marginalised communities had been selectively targeted, besides calling for a thorough and impartial investigation into such complaints.
He asserted that any deliberate attempt to undermine the electoral process must invite strict criminal action under the law if established by evidence.
Further, the AAP leader demanded an independent, transparent and credible mechanism to examine reported irregularities in electoral rolls and scrutinise administrative conduct under Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.
“Institutional autonomy, neutrality and accountability of the Election Commission were indispensable to the functioning and survival of constitutional democracy,” he added.
Through the resolution, the Punjab Vidhan Sabha urged Centre and the relevant constitutional authorities to ensure the constitutional protection of voting rights, order an impartial inquiry into reported discrepancies in electoral rolls and establish accountability wherever irregularities were found.
