Aadhaar Valid As 12th Document For Special Revision Of Voters: Supreme Court

The Election Commission must accept the Aadhaar as proof of identity, and include it on list of 11 other documents deemed 'valid' for re-verification of voters ahead of the Bihar Assembly election later this year, the Supreme Court said Monday in the 'special intensive revision' case.

In a verbal order issued in court this morning, a bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said Aadhaar cards should be accepted as the 12th document to establish identity of an individual for the purpose of inclusion in, or exclusion from, the electoral roll.

The court overruled a plea by senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the Election Commission, that said 99.6 per cent of the 7.24 crore voters in the draft roll had already submitted documents, and seeking inclusion of Aadhaar now would not serve any purpose.

However, in a nod to the poll panel's earlier objection - that the Aadhaar could be forged and was, therefore, an unsuitable option to establish identity - the court said election officials could "verify the genuineness of the card" and that it could not be used to establish citizenship.

The order this morning echoes a July observation; the court said the risk of forgery - which the EC said led it to rule out two other ID cards too - could happen for any of the 11 it had allowed.

In connection with that observation, the court also sought the poll panel's explanation on notices that had been issued to poll officials for not accepting voters' Aadhaar cards.

The top court is hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the Election Commission's 'special intensive revision', or SIR, of the voter list in Bihar months before the state election.

The opposition, including the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal, who form the Mahagathbandhan alliance in the state, has argued the revision is subterfuge to disenfranchise lakhs of men and women from communities that traditionally vote for them. The Congress has also accused the ruling BJP and Election Commission of 'collusion to commit voter fraud'.

The Election Commission, however, has insisted its SIR is within legal and constitutional mandates, and that the voter re-verification process was carried out in a transparent manner.

The EC has also argued the re-verification process allowed it to identify lakhs of illegal voters, including those who are Nepali or Bangladeshi citizens and, therefore, have no right to vote in India. The court acknowledged that point in today's hearing, saying, 'nobody wants including of illegal immigrants in the electoral roll... only genuine citizens must be allowed to vote'.

The court said people claiming to be Indian citizens - on the basis of forged documents - must be excluded from the electoral roll. The question then was about documents that those excluded could present - the Aadhaar was not included then - to challenge their removal.

In its August 22 hearing, the top court had made 12 political parties part of the hearing on the SIR and asked them to file a status report as to what they have done to help deleted voters.

On September 1, the court, while hearing some applications filed by parties for extension of deadlines, was told by the poll panel that claims, objections, and corrections in the draft roll can be filed beyond September 1 but these would be considered once it is finalised.

The court termed confusion over the Bihar SIR '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 SIR's findings reduced the total number of registered voters in Bihar, from 7.9 crore before the exercise to 7.24 crore after conducting it.

With input from agencies

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