The Election Commission has made it clear that the recent regulation concerning the linking of Aadhaar with voter lists to eliminate duplicate entries is not compulsory. In response to the matter, the Election Commission informed the Supreme Court that it intends to make “clarificatory” adjustments to its voter registration forms, emphasizing that the provision of Aadhaar numbers for voter ID cards remains an optional choice.
A bench composed of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, Justice J B Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Misra acknowledged the Election Commission’s statements and resolved the PIL (Public Interest Litigation) that had sought clarifications on Rule 26B of the Registration of Electors (Amendment) Rules, 2022.
Rule 26B, which was introduced to collect Aadhaar numbers, states, “every person whose name is listed in the roll may intimate his Aadhaar number to the registration officer in Form 6B.”
The bench considered the arguments put forth by the Election Commission’s legal representatives, which affirmed that “the Aadhaar number was not mandatory under Rule 26-B of the Registration of Electors (Amendment) Rules, 2022, and thus, the Election Commission was exploring the issuance of appropriate clarifications in the forms designed for this purpose.”
However, senior lawyer Sukumar Pattjoshi, representing the Election Commission, mentioned that more than 66 crore Aadhaar numbers had already been included in the process of finalizing electoral rolls.
Consequently, the bench concluded the proceedings related to the PIL filed by G Niranjan, which had requested that the Election Commission modify its forms to emphasize that the integration of the 12-digit Aadhaar number is not required to become a voter. The Supreme Court had issued notice to the Election Commission on February 27 regarding this PIL.
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