The Compulsory Voting Conundrum: Exploring the Legal Maze of Mandating the Indian Vote

The Constitution of India bestows the right to vote on all its citizens who are above the age of 18 years and possess a sound mind, irrespective of class, caste, religion, or socio-economic status. Unfortunately, in today’s times participation during elections is considered to be an unnecessary obli...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Vietnamese Journal of Legal Sciences 2024-08, Vol.11 (2), p.40-52
Main Author: Bedi, Shruti
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Citizen participation
Citizenship
compulsory voting
Constitutional law
Democracy
Elections
Electoral reform
Private members bills
voter
Voter behavior
Voters
voting
Voting rights
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The Constitution of India bestows the right to vote on all its citizens who are above the age of 18 years and possess a sound mind, irrespective of class, caste, religion, or socio-economic status. Unfortunately, in today’s times participation during elections is considered to be an unnecessary obligation or rather a chore that can be ignored. Effort has been made in the past to introduce compulsory voting in India albeit without success. The paper evaluates the arguments for and against compulsory electoral participation and attempts to situate its possibility and legality in the current context of India’s constitutional democracy. The findings are based on comparative analysis on different cases and hold true for most democratic nations.
ISSN:2719-3004
2719-3004
DOI:10.2478/vjls-2024-0010