SC directs EC to include Aadhaar as 12th ID document in Bihar voter roll exercise

The Supreme Court directed the Election Commission to accept Aadhaar as the 12th identity document in Bihar’s electoral roll revision. Clarifying it is not proof of citizenship, the court stressed that only genuine citizens should be allowed to vote

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Election Commission to include Aadhaar as a 12th prescribed document for establishing the identity of a voter in the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise of the electoral roll in poll-bound Bihar.

At the moment, for Bihar SIR, there are 11 prescribed documents that electors have to submit with their enumeration forms. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, however, clarified that Aadhaar will not be a proof of citizenship, and the commission can ascertain the genuineness of the Aadhaar card number submitted by an elector for inclusion in the electoral roll.

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Observing nobody wants the EC to include illegal immigrants in the electoral roll, the bench said it should be clear that only genuine citizens will be allowed to vote, and those claiming to be genuine based on forged documents will be excluded from the electoral roll.

The bench asked the poll panel to issue necessary directions during the course of the day for the acceptance of Aadhaar as a document for proof of identity. The top court also sought the EC’s explanation on the showcause notices it issued to poll officials for not accepting the Aadhaar card from the voters.

Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the poll panel, submitted 99.6 per cent of the 7.24 crore voters in the draft roll had submitted documents, and petitioners seeking inclusion of Aadhaar as the 12th document would not serve any practical purpose. The bench referred to provisions of the Aadhaar Act of 2016 and the Representation of the People Act and said that it is not proof of citizenship but can be considered as proof of identity.

On September 1, the top court, while hearing some applications filed by political parties for extension of deadlines, was informed by the poll panel that claims, objections, and corrections in the draft electoral roll prepared in Bihar under the SIR exercise can be filed beyond September 1, but these would be considered once the electoral roll is finalised.
It said claims and objections in the draft roll can be filed till the last date of nomination forms in each assembly constituency.

The top court also termed the confusion over the Bihar SIR as “largely a trust issue” and directed the state legal service authority to deploy paralegal volunteers to assist individual voters and political parties in filing claims and objections to the draft roll, which was published on August 1.

The poll panel, which opposed any extension of the September 1 deadline for filing of claims and objections as per the SIR schedule, had submitted that post the top court’s August 22 order, till August 30, only 22,723 claims had been filed for inclusion and 1,34,738 objections had been filed for exclusion.

According to the June 24 schedule of the poll panel for the Bihar SIR, the deadline for filing claims and objections to the draft roll ended on September 1, and the final electoral roll will be published on September 30.