CEC calls top officials' meeting over linking Aadhaar, voter ID

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar has scheduled detailed discussions for March 18 with secretaries from Union home ministry and legislative department about linking Aadhaar identification numbers with voter ID cards, Election Commission of India officials said on Saturday.

- Abhishek Angad and Aditi Agrawal

NEW DELHI:

The high-level meeting comes after Kumar directed chief electoral officers of all states and Union territories on March 4-5 that "all attempts should be made to link electoral rolls with Aadhaar", as reported by HT first on March 12.

The timing is significant as opposition parties have intensified allegations of voter fraud and manipulation involving duplicate voter IDs.

Four senior officials told HT that the Election Commission had previously planned to make the Aadhaar-voter ID connection effectively mandatory, although in a subsequent 2023 submission to the Supreme Court, the panel said such linking was not mandatory.

"The form 6B doesn't say anywhere that furnishing Aadhaar is mandatory, but there is no option for the elector to say 'I have an Aadhaar number but I won't give it'," explained one official. "The ECI, in consultation with the law ministry, left no scope for it to be voluntary else why would people give Aadhaar."

The officials confirmed that both the Unique Identification Authority of India, which administers the Aadhaar program, and the law ministry were consulted extensively before the law was amended to enable the linkage.

The legal foundation for connecting the two identification systems was established through the Election Laws (Amendment) Act of 2021, notified on December 29, 2021. The legislation amended Section 23 of the Representation of the People Act 1950, empowering electoral registration officers to "require" Aadhaar numbers from both prospective and existing voters to establish their identity.

While the amendment included language stating that applications for inclusion in electoral rolls couldn't be denied and existing entries couldn't be deleted for not furnishing Aadhaar "due to such sufficient cause as may be prescribed," EC's implementation appears to have created a de facto requirement.