Supreme Court Assures That Aadhaar Is Not Required for Voter Registration
Election Commission to Issue Clarifications on Forms
In order to allay concerns that a large number of voters' names would be removed for failing to Aadhaar-seed their voter I-card, the Supreme Court has recorded an assurance from the Election Commission that the submission of Aadhaar cards is not required for voter registration.
The undertaking was made during the hearing of a plea from Telangana Congress leader G. Niranjan, who claimed that the demand for the mandatory Aadhaar-linking of voter cards violated the right to privacy. Senior attorney Sukumar Pattjoshi and the election panel's standing counsel, Amit Sharma, provided the undertaking.
"Mr Sukumar Pattjoshi, senior counsel appearing on behalf of the Election Commission of India, with Mr Amit Sharma, counsel, states nearly 66,23,00,000 Aadhaar numbers have already been uploaded in the process of finalising electoral rolls," a bench headed by CJI D.Y. Chandrachud stated in a recent order.
The submission of the Aadhaar number is not required, according to Rule 26B of the Registration of Electors (Amendment) Rules 2022, according to Mr. Pattjoshi. As a result, the Election Commission is looking into issuing the necessary clarifying revisions to the forms, the bench said.
Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra sat on the Supreme Court's bench.
According to a government notification, "every person whose name is included in the electoral roll may intimate his Aadhaar number on or before April 1, 2023."
According to the petition, which was brought by attorney Karnam Sravan Kumar, requiring voters to provide their Aadhaar numbers violates the Constitution's Articles 14 (on equality) and 21 (on life and personal liberty, including privacy).
The suit claimed that it also contravened a 2017 ruling by a nine-judge constitutional court in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India, which stated that Aadhaar cannot be made obligatory unless the intended beneficiaries are getting a subsidy or other direct government benefits.
The petition raised concerns about the potential exploitation of the personal information of voters who provide their Aadhaar numbers. Additionally, the demand for Aadhaar voter authentication could "lead to the deletion of a large number of voters across the country".
The petition drew attention to the fact that there was no column on Form 6, the application form for new voters, asking for permission to share their Aadhaar number. The applicant also had to acknowledge, at the end of the form, that they were aware that making a false declaration may result in a one-year jail sentence.
