NISHITA MHATRE,J. - (1.) This Public Interest Litigation has been filed by an advocate of this Court contending that a writ of mandamus should be issued directing the respondents i.e. the Union of India and the State of West Bengal to adopt necessary measures requiring a candidate contesting the elections to the Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabha, Corporation, municipalities and panchayats to have a minimum academic qualification. A prayer is also made for debarring under trials and convicts from contesting the elections.
(2.) The learned Advocate representing the petitioner urged that only a person with a minimum educational qualification should be eligible to contest an election. This is because once the candidate is elected as a representative of the people, one of the tasks he/she is required to discharge is the onerous responsibility of framing laws which govern the electorate and others in the society. He submitted that it is humiliating for a voter to find that persons who are elected to these bodies and are representing a large section of society are not even literate in some instances. Furthermore, according to the learned Advocate there is no restriction on persons facing a criminal trial from contesting elections nor is there any ban on those who have been convicted from standing for elections. He argued that such persons should not be permitted to muddy the purity of elections.
(3.) The right to vote is a constitutional right in a democracy, such as ours. Adult suffrage is a basic tenet of our constitution, embodied in Article 326. The right to vote is not recognized as a fundamental right but is a right recognized under the constitution and is governed by the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1951(hereafter referred to as the Act of 1951) which came on to the statute book on 17th July, 1951.;