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Informist, Monday, Sept. 8, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court on Monday said that the Election Commission of India should use the Aadhaar card for determining the identity of people to include or exclude them as voters in the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in the state. However, officials can verify the genuineness of the Aadhaar card, and it should not be treated as proof of citizenship, the court said.

 

"Nobody is asking illegal immigrants to be allowed. We know Aadhaar is proof of identity and not citizenship. Suppose this is the 12th document (for inclusion as voters in the Bihar rolls), what is the issue?" the apex court asked the Election Commission. The court asked the poll panel to issue instructions regarding the inclusion of the Aadhaar card as one of the documents. 

 

The ruling came after the petitioners argued that despite the court's orders, some officers were refusing to accept the Aadhaar card as proof of identity. Last month, the Supreme Court had directed the Election Commission to accept "11 documents or the Aadhaar card" from those left out in the special revision of electoral rolls in the state. 

 

The Supreme Court had earlier asked the Election Commission to publish on its district-level websites the list of names of 6.5 million electors left out of the draft electoral rolls in Bihar after the special intensive revision. The list should also reveal the reason for non-inclusion in the rolls, the top court said.

 

The court's order came on a petition by the Association for Democratic Reforms seeking directions to the poll panel to publish the names and details of around 6.5 million electors left out of the electoral rolls. The non-government organisation has asked the apex court to direct the poll panel to publish constituency-wise or booth-wise list of names and details, including reasons of around 6.5 million electors removed from the draft roll published on Aug. 1.

 

The top court was hearing a petition by the Association for Democratic Reforms, Rashtriya Janata Dal Member of Parliament Manoj Jha, People's Union for Civil Liberties, activist Yogendra Yadav, and All India Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament Mahua Moitra. The petitioners had contested the commission's directive to hold a special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar. 

 

On Jul. 10, the top court identified three key challenges in the petitions: the poll panel's authority to conduct a special intensive revision, the revision procedure, and the timeline for this revision, all of which are pertinent to the upcoming Bihar assembly elections, due in November. 

 

The petitioners said the revision was violative of the Constitution as well as provisions of the Representation of the People Act and the Registration of Electors Rules. If the Election Commission's order is not set aside, it could arbitrarily and without due process disfranchise millions of voters from electing their representatives, thereby disrupting free and fair elections and democracy in the country, the petitioners said.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Saji George Titus

 

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