The Hindu : National : Open ballot for Rajya Sabha polls upheld

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Wednesday, Aug 23, 2006

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Open ballot for Rajya Sabha polls upheld

Legal Correspondent

Amendment brought in to avoid cross-voting, says Supreme Court Bench

New Delhi: A five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld an amendment introducing open ballot, instead of secret ballot, for elections to the Rajya Sabha.

The Bench, headed by Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal, included Justices K.G. Balakrishnan, S.H. Kapadia, C.K. Thakker and P.K. Balasubramanyan.

The Bench said, "The Constitution itself has provided for elections by secret ballot where it thought it fit to do so, for example, in case of election of the President and the Vice-President. It not being the requirement of the Constitution, as in the case of the President and the Vice-President, it was permissible for Parliament when passing legislation on the subject to provide otherwise, that is to choose between the system of secret ballot or open ballot, and so there is no constitutional infirmity in providing open ballot system for the Council of States."

Since the amendment had been brought in to avoid cross-voting, to wipe out corruption and also to maintain the integrity of the democratic set-up, it could also be justified by the State as a reasonable restriction under Article 19(2) of the Constitution, on the assumption that voting in such an election amounted to freedom of expression under Article 19(1)(a).

The Bench said, "Political parties are the sine qua non of parliamentary democracy in our country, and the protection of party discipline can be introduced as an essential feature of the purity of elections. If secrecy becomes a source for corruption, then sunlight and transparency have the capacity to remove it. We can only say that legislation, pursuant to a legislative policy that transparency will eliminate the evil that has crept in, would hopefully serve the larger object of free and fair elections."

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