Says Justice RV Raveendran; adds people don't mind electing a criminal from their caste.
"If a person has criminal records, voters should not vote for him. But people don't mind electing a criminal if he belongs to their caste or community. We need to ask the question why caste takes over criminality during the election process. We need to find answers and initiate debate and discussions over such matters," said retired Supreme Court justice RV Raveendran while delivering the Justice PD Desai Memorial lecture on Saturday at the Ahmedabad Management Association. He spoke on 'Parliamentary Democracy and Electoral Reforms'.
Justice Raveendran said, "In India, we don't have the culture to debate and discuss. Fair and accurate criticism of judiciary is absent in our country. Such memorial lectures should be followed by series of debates, discussions and seminars. We should draw conclusions based on that and it should be circulated to the concerned institutions like the Supreme Court, law commission. Constructive criticism should always be welcomed."
He talked about the criminalisation of election process, role of caste and community in electing the candidate, negative or neutral voting and right to recall the elected candidates. He also discussed the existing provisions in the present system to stop criminalisation.
Regarding negative voting, he satirically said, "We don't need the provision of negative or neutral voting as 70% of middle class in our country is already practising it by not exercising their franchise. They don't like the candidate, they don't vote. This is not negative voting but the negative attitude that whether you cast your vote or not, the situation will not change." He also added that if voting is made compulsory, then right to negative voting
is needed.
Justice Raveendran was in city to deliver the 7th Justice PD Desai Memorial Lecture organised annually by Praleen Public Charitable Trust. Members of the legal fraternity including sitting and retired judges of the high courts, state advocate general Kamal Trivedi, senior lawyers and students of law colleges were present at the lecture.
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