National
SIR Excercise : Supreme Court Directs Election Commission To Accept Aadhaar As 12th Document
Picture : ANI /X
The Supreme Court has directed the Election Commission to include Aadhaar as a 12th prescribed document for establishing the identity of a voter in special intensive revision (SIR) exercise of electoral roll in poll-bound Bihar.
At the moment for Bihar SIR, there are 11 prescribed documents which electors have to submit with their enumeration forms. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, however, clarified Aadhaar will not be a proof of citizenship and the commission can ascertain the genuineness of Aadhaar card number submitted by an elector for inclusion in the electoral roll.
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 on the basis of 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 acceptance of Aadhaar as a document for proof of identity. The top court also sought EC’s explanation on showcause notices it issued to poll officials for not accepting Aadhaar card from the voters. Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for 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 12th document would not serve any practical purpose.
The bench referred to provisions of Aadhaar Act of 2016 and the Representation of Peoples Act and said that it not a proof of citizenship but can be considered as a proof of identity.