Right to Vote Behind Bars: Is Imprisonment not Enough?

Abstract

India ­­­­­has been characterized as the biggest democracy in the world because of the significant nature that take place all over the country. People collectively take participation into choosing their leaders, whether for the national general elections or state elections. Elections are the root of the concept of democracy, as democracy brings out the idea of people’s rule and hence a large amount of people goes to the poll to elect members for the Lok Sabha, State legislative assembly, and the legislature of the union territories. One of the basic features of our Constitution is Free and Fair Elections. Election gives a ruling party an immense amount of power and hence it is vital for the sake of protecting democracy that nothing hampers with such process of electing members. Elections in India are almost treated equally to one of the big festivals, as people are collected to celebrate the process of voting and campaigns take place all over the country or state in a grand manner. This paper particularly talks about Right to vote of prisoners. The paper would analyze the concept of right of vote in a democracy and the degree of importance that a mere right can hold. The paper would also be comparing the right to vote for prisoners internationally, so as to reason behind the concept of different opinions when compared to the Indian society. Prisoners are felons of the society and they are treated always lesser than the other citizens but it is important to make sure that how much low they can be treated for what they have done, as taking away right for being a prisoner but not on the basis of the degree of the crime is how far right and how far wrong.