Accept Aadhaar as voter ID proof, SC directs EC

NEW DELHI: Accepting a major demand of the opposition, the Supreme Court on Monday ordered the Election Commission to accept Aadhaar cards, in addition to the 11 documents specified under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), as a proof of identity of a person to enable him to file application for inclusion in the Bihar electoral roll.After hearing senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who complained that EC was acting contrary to a series of directions by SC to accept Aadhaar as proof of identity, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi ordered, "Aadhaar cards shall be accepted as proof of identity of a person for filing applications for inclusion/exclusion of names from the voter list. It shall be treated as the 12th document (under SIR)."The direction for inclusion of Aadhaar as a document in addition to the 11 allowed by EC came after the poll panel's strong resistance to the petitioners' repeated pleas for acceptance of Aadhaar as an identification document.

Justices Kant and Bagchi said Aadhaar card is not alien to the Representation of People Act as one of its provisions provides for Aadhaar as identity proof.

The Election Commission through senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi told the bench that of a total of 7.24 crore names included in the draft Bihar voter list, 99.6% of voters have submitted one of the 11 documents specified under SIR. "The clamour for making Aadhaar as an identity document is probably to include illegal migrants in the voter list without verification of their citizenship," he said.

The bench took note of the EC's concern and said, "The authorities concerned will verify the genuineness of Aadhaar cards like any other document submitted by a person seeking inclusion or exclusion of name from the voter list and that Aadhaar will not be considered a proof of citizenship." It posted the matter for further hearing on Sept 15.EC, which was also being represented senior advocate Maninder Singh, told the bench that opposition parties have not been able to point out any serious lapse with regard to 65 lakh exclusions on the triple counts of death, permanent migration and dual enrolment.

Dwivedi and Singh said RJD, leader of the opposition alliance in Bihar, has alleged mistakes with regard to only 265 names.SC also issued notice to EC on an application by Ashwini Upadhyay seeking intensive revision of electoral rolls in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry. The Mamata Banerjee govt has already filed a petition in SC against SIR in Bengal.When EC said Aadhaar is forged by illegal migrants, the bench said there are instances of even the other 11 documents, including passport and birth certificate, being forged. "Those who are claiming citizenship based on forged documents would have to be eliminated after scrutiny. No illegal migrant can be included in the voter list," the court said. The bench said EC revision manual suggests passport and birth certificate as proof of identity but to make the electoral roll inclusive, the commission went beyond these two to specify 11 documents which could be relied upon as identity proof.

The top court asked EC to issue necessary directions to the booth-level officers (BLOs) to accept Aadhaar as an identity proof for those seeking inclusion and exclusion of names from voter list.