Democracy is the basic feature of our constitution
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION
WRIT PETITION (CIVIL) NO.104 OF 2015
ANOOP BARANWAL … PETITIONER
VERSUS
UNION OF INDIA … RESPONDENT
WITH
WRIT PETITION(CIVIL) NO. 1043 OF 2017
WRIT PETITION(CIVIL) NO.569 OF 2021
AND
WRIT PETITION(CIVIL) NO.998 OF 2022
J U D G M E N T
K.M. JOSEPH, J.
The Constitution Bench, we may notice, made the following observations:
“10. The Preamble of our Constitution proclaims that we are a Democratic Republic. Democracy being the basic feature of our constitutional set-up, there can be no two opinions that free and fair elections to our legislative bodies alone would guarantee the growth of a healthy democracy in the country. In order to ensure the purity of the election process it was thought by our Constitutionmakers that the responsibility to hold free and fair elections in the country should be entrusted to an independent body which would be insulated from political and/or executive 14 (1995) 4 SCC 611 85 interference. It is inherent in a democratic set-up that the agency which is entrusted the task of holding elections to the legislatures should be fully insulated so that it can function as an independent agency free from external pressures from the party in power or executive of the day. This objective is achieved by the setting up of an Election Commission, a permanent body, under Article 324(1) of the Constitution. The superintendence, direction and control of the entire election process in the country has been vested under the said clause in a commission called the Election Commission.