No Authority Can Take Away Right to Vote: SC Justice Bhuyan Rejects Electoral Roll Deletions as Minister Links Protests to ‘Anti-India Elements’

New Delhi: Supreme Court judge Justice Ujjal Bhuyan has declared that no authority or court can justify stripping Indian citizens of their fundamental voting rights, delivering a sharp critique of systemic electoral roll deletions during an address at NALSAR University of Law. His remarks came amid an escalating political row over the Special Summary Revision (SIR) exercise, following Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju’s assertion that protests against the drive were part of a conspiracy by "anti-India elements."

Addressing students and legal scholars at NALSAR, Justice Bhuyan stressed that disenfranchising eligible voters strikes at the very core of constitutional democracy. Asserting that no authority can strip citizens of their voting rights and no court can condone such action, he rejected administrative excuses and past precedents used to explain the arbitrary removal of names from electoral rolls, calling for strict institutional accountability from the Election Commission.

Union Minister Claims Anti-India Conspiracy Behind SIR Protests

The Supreme Court judge's stern stance coincides with a sharp political pushback from Union Minister Kiren Rijiju regarding widespread criticism of the ongoing Special Summary Revision. Defending Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the election authority, Rijiju maintained that genuine voters have nothing to fear from the verification exercise.

Rijiju claimed that protests and political opposition surrounding the SIR drive were being fueled by "anti-India elements" aiming to undermine trust in India's democratic machinery and compromise electoral integrity.