Supreme Court says voting, contesting polls not fundamental rights: ‘It’s well settled'

THe redress to voter turnout and to repugn elections ar non fundamental but statutory entitlements, the Supreme Court has maintained. A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and R Mahadevan said that these rights exist only to the extent provided by law.“It is well settled that neither the right to vote nor the right to contest an election is a fundamental right,” the court said, as per Live law.Citing previous precedents, the court said that while voting enables participation in the electoral process, the right to contest is a distinct and additional entitlement that can be subject to qualifications, eligibility conditions, and disqualifications.Case backgroundThe case is about election rules for District Milk Producers’ Co-operative Unions in Rajasthan. These unions work under a three-tier system set up by the Rajasthan Co-operative Societies Act, 2001.Bye-laws were made to set eligibility rules for candidates. These included minimum days and quantity of milk supply, the working status of societies, and audit standards.Some primary cooperative societies challenged these rules in the Rajasthan High Court, saying they were unfair and went beyond the law.In 2015, a Single Judge struck down the bye-laws but allowed past elections to stand. This was upheld by a division bench in 2022.After this, the Registrar started the process to change the bye-laws. This led chairpersons of several district milk unions, who were not part of the High Court case but said they were affected, to move the Supreme Court.Supreme Court disagrees with High CourtThe Supreme Court disagreed with the High Court’s reasoning, holding that the bye-laws merely laid down eligibility criteria and did not amount to disqualifications or violate constitutional principles.It also questioned the maintainability of the writ petitions. Cooperative societies are generally not “State” under Article 12 and do not ordinarily perform public functions, the court said. As a result, disputes relating to their internal governance, particularly elections, do not typically warrant interference under Article 226.What rules say about voting rightsThe right to vote and to contest elections comes from statutes, not the Constitution. Laws like the Representation of the People Acts, 1950 and 1951 decide who can vote, who can stand for elections, and who can be disqualified, for example, based on age, citizenship, or criminal record.Similar rules apply to local bodies and cooperative societies under state laws and bye-laws. This means the government can set reasonable conditions for these rights, and courts usually step in only if the rules are unfair or violate basic constitutional principles like equality.