THE HINDU DATED 05th OCT 2026

Summary of Important News Items and Editorials- 335

THE HINDU DATED 05th OCT 2026

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1. Anti-CEC Protests Continue in Delhi — Electoral Trust and SIR

Protests demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and suspension of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls entered another day in Delhi, with police detaining hundreds of demonstrators attempting to reach Jantar Mantar. Opposition parties, student organisations and civil-society groups allege that SIR has led to, or risks, wrongful voter exclusion. The Election Commission has defended electoral-roll revision as necessary for maintaining accurate rolls. These remain competing political and institutional positions; allegations of deliberate disenfranchisement should not be treated as established facts. Reports also described confrontations between police and protesters. Constitutionally, Article 324 entrusts election administration to the ECI, while Article 326 establishes adult suffrage. Gist: clean electoral rolls and inclusive electoral rolls are complementary objectives. Confidence requires transparent additions and deletions, individual notice, accessible appeals, auditable databases and impartial application of electoral law.

2. Justice Ujjal Bhuyan on Disenfranchisement — Right to Vote and Constitutional Equality

Supreme Court judge Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, speaking outside a judicial proceeding, said that a process disenfranchising millions of citizens without the right to vote would be intrinsically arbitrary and could raise concerns under Articles 14 and 326. He described voting as fundamental to representative democracy and cautioned against processes capable of converting citizens into politically unequal classes. The distinction is important: these were observations in a public address, not a Supreme Court judgment on the ongoing SIR litigation. Indian constitutional law treats voting primarily as a statutory right operating within the constitutional framework of universal adult suffrage, while free and fair elections form part of the Constitution’s basic structure. Gist: electoral-roll accuracy cannot be pursued without procedural fairness. Verification mechanisms must guard against both fraudulent enrolment and arbitrary exclusion through notice, hearing, evidence-based decisions and effective remedies. In electoral administration, due process is essential to democratic legitimacy.

3. Kerala Orders Vigilance Probe Against CEC Gyanesh Kumar