The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on December 10.

THE Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) considers the latest ruling of the Supreme Court upholding minimum education qualifications as a prerequisite for candidates contesting panchayat polls in Haryana as being violative of the fundamental feature of universal suffrage guaranteed to all citizens of India by the Indian Constitution. 

Universal suffrage is not limited only to the right to vote.  All those who have the right to vote also automatically have the right to contest.  Such restrictions on the right to contest are against the spirit of the constitutional right of universal suffrage and the principle of equality before law. 

By setting such preconditions for contesting panchayat and local bodies elections, a large section of the rural poor have been excluded from their basic right to be elected representatives.

At the beginning of the current winter session, the Indian parliament reaffirmed its resolve to implement our Constitution and the central government has declared a new observance every year of the Constitution Day on November 26.

The PB of the CPI(M) considers that this present ruling should be reviewed by the full constitution bench of the Supreme Court.