New Delhi, May 25
Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and his wife Kalpana Das on Saturday cast their votes at a polling booth here in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
"Today, by voting I have fulfilled my duties as a citizen of the country and this is a major duty of every citizen of the country,” said the CJI Chandrachud who returned in time from Tashkent where he had gone for a meeting of Chief Justices of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states.
The seven-phase Lok Sabha polls to elect 543 MPs for the 18th Lok Sabha commenced on April 19 and it will end June 1. The results will be declared on June 4, 2024.
Earlier, CJI Chandrachud had appeared in a promotional video of the Election Commission and urged citizens not to miss the opportunity to vote in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
"We are citizens of the world's largest democracy, which is our country. The Constitution gives us a multitude of rights as citizens but it also expects that each of us performs the duty, which is cast upon us. And one of the foremost duties of citizenship is to cast a vote in a constitutional democracy," the CJI had said in a recorded video message for the Election Commission's 'My Vote My Voice' mission for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
"I will request every one of you please do not miss this opportunity to vote responsibly as citizens of our great motherland. Five minutes…every five years for our nation. It's doable, isn't it? Let's vote with pride. My vote, my voice," the EC’s promotional video showed the CJI as saying.
Justice Chandrachud had said he never missed the duty to cast his vote when he was a lawyer and had to run around for work.
"So our Constitution and our law provides for one citizen, one vote and one value. I think that's the great tenacity and the power of our nation as a constitutional democracy," he had said.
Recalling his own excitement as the first-time voter and queuing up at the polling booth to exercise the franchise, the CJI had said, "The ink on the finger when I vote allows tremendous feelings of patriotism and association with the nation...,"
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