Centre to consider ECI proposal to link Aadhaar with electoral rolls to curb multiple voting

@the_news_21

Mumbai: The proposal of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to link electoral rolls with Aadhaar Card ecosystem is under consideration of Government of India (GoI), this was stated by Union Minister for Law and Justice, Kiren Rijiju in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. He said this in a written reply to a starred question raised by Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Sajda Ahmed from West Bengal.

The move comes even after the Supreme Court of India (SCI) had in a September 2018 judgment ruled that Aadhaar Card was not mandatory for opening of bank accounts or getting mobile connections.

It may be recalled that in 2015, the ECI had made attempts at seeding of Aadhaar Card with Voters List. The process was halted after the SCI stayed the process. During that exercise in Maharashtra, Aadhaar seeding of 8,81,115 voters and 6,011 service voters was completed. The data was then deleted by the ECI.

Also, the public response to the drive then was also poor, besides the public outcry over data secrecy. The SCI in its 2018 judgment while upholding the need for Aadhaar to avail government welfare schemes, also struck down some of the provisions of the Aadhaar Act and directed the Centre to come up with new Data Protection law.

Sajda Ahmed had asked whether the Government proposes to link Aadhaar with the electoral rolls and what was the current status. Replying to the query, Rijiju stated that the ECI has proposed to link the electoral roll with the Aadhaar ecosystem with a view to curbing the menace of multiple enrolment of the same person at different places.

Replying to the query whether the Government has proposed electoral reforms and whether the Government has instituted any expert committee on electoral reforms, the Union Minister for Law and Justice disclosed that the issue of electoral reforms in its entirety was examined by the Law Commission in the recent past.

Rijiju further stated that after consulting various stakeholders, the Law Commission submitted its 244th and 255th Reports encompassing various aspects of electoral reforms which, inter alia, include disqualification from contesting election on framing of charges, regulation of election finance and opinion polls, ban on paid news etc.

Responding to another query by Sajda Ahmed on the number of false affidavits filed by contesting candidates in the General Elections during the last ten years, the Union Minister for Law and Justice stated that the ECI has informed that it does not maintain such information.