Bihar: Supreme Court Asks EC To Consider Aadhaar, Voter ID; Questions Timing Of Electoral Revision
New Delhi: The Election Commission of India on Thursday, July 10, told the Supreme Court that the Aadhaar card is not proof of citizenship, while hearing the petitions challenging the “Special Intensive Revision(SIR)” of the Electoral Rolls in Bihar.
Challenging the poll body’s exclusion of the Aadhaar card and the voter card from the list of eleven documents specified by the Election Commission as citizenship documents for consideration, the petitioners argued the poll body has no jurisdiction to determine questions of citizenship.
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Hearing the case, the Supreme Court Bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi raised questions over the poll body’s timing of the voter list revision, including the exclusion of key documents like Aadhaar from the verification process.
When the court asked the poll body why Aadhaar was not acceptable, Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing the EC, responded stating that Aadhaar cannot be used as proof of citizenship. The lawyer argued that the Aadhaar card is only an authentication of one’s identity and does not show citizenship, noting that the document itself mentions that the Aadhaar card by itself was not proof of citizenship or domicile.
The apex court then pointed out entire exercise of SIR is about identity, while questioning the poll body for stridently opposing the inclusion the Aadhaar, Voter ID among others. While the court hinted at continuing of the SIR exercise, it ruled that the EC may consider Aadhaar, Voters ID, ration cards as valid proof. However, the Bench has listed the case to July 28.
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Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who appeared for the petitioners, stated that the process of intensive revision was carried out in a slapdash manner in Bihar, and the special intensive revision was completed in just 30 days. While expressing shock over the exclusion and ignorance of Aadhaar and voter ID cards, the lawyer highlighted that only 11 documents were considered.
The petitioners also urged the top court to seek an explanation over the ill-timed and hasty conduct of the poll body’s exercises in Bihar. Sankaranarayanan warned that Bihar is just the first stage, and there is a risk that the SIR will be implemented nationwide.
The petitioners have urged the top court to seek an explanation from the Election Commission for the “ill-timed and hasty” conduct of the SIR exercise in Bihar. He alerted that the development shifts the burden onto individuals to prove their citizenship. The petitioners have not insisted for interim stay of the poll body’s verification exercise.
