"False, Misleading": DMK Denies Collecting Aadhaar For Membership Drive

A day after the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court restrained the ruling DMK from collecting Aadhaar details and OTPs from the public during its membership drive, the party has strongly denied the allegations in court, calling them "false and misleading."

Appearing before the bench on Tuesday, the DMK submitted that it does not collect Aadhaar numbers or any other personal documents for its membership campaign. The party clarified that the OTP system is used solely to record voluntary consent from individuals seeking to enrol, and not for any Aadhaar-based authentication.

The submission comes in response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by an AIADMK advocate, who alleged that the DMK's ambitious membership drive - aimed at enrolling at least 30% of the state's voters ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections - was in violation of the Aadhaar Act and individual privacy rights.

The petitioner had accused the DMK of coercing citizens, especially women, into sharing Aadhaar numbers, ration cards, voter IDs, and bank passbook details. It was also claimed that mobile numbers were being collected, followed by an OTP-based verification allegedly linked to Aadhaar, creating a politically motivated voter database.

However, the DMK, in its counter, told the court, "No Aadhaar-based OTPs are being sought."

"Members are being enrolled purely on the basis of the Electoral Roll released by the Election Commission. No documents like Aadhaar, ration card, or passbook are being collected. The PIL is based on misinformation spread by AIADMK," it said.

Though the court did not stop the party's enrolment drive, DMK's counsel informed that the enrolment drive has been paused in light of the court's interim order and urged the bench to treat the case as an urgent matter, allowing the party to clarify its position in fairness.

The court has now directed the DMK to file a formal impleading petition, giving it an opportunity to be heard officially in the matter. Yesterday, one of the judges also noted that during Tuesday's proceedings, natural justice required the respondents (including DMK) to be given a chance to respond before any adverse findings are recorded.

The high court had on Monday restrained the DMK from collecting Aadhaar and OTP details based on the PIL's claims. The order had also tagged the Election Commission and UIDAI for their response, given the implications for voter data protection and political data usage.

The case is expected to be taken up later this week, with the court likely to hear detailed arguments from all sides. The outcome could set a precedent on the boundaries of political data collection and the use of digital verification in party enrolment campaigns.