Key Points

Breaking down the Apex Court’s observations on Special Intensive Revision (SIR), the EC counsel Rakesh Dwidevi said that many petitioners argued before the court over the inclusion of Aadhaar in the verification drive; however, the SC made it clear that the Aadhaar cards will be considered for the SIR exercise, but can’t serve as the proof/evidence of citizenship.

The verbal order, issued by the court this morning by a bench of SC judges Surya Kant and Joymala Bagchi, however, overruled his plea that inclusion of petitioners regarding Aadhaar be done away with because many days have passed after the publication of draft electoral rolls and over 99.6 per cent electors out of 7.24 crore voters have already submitted their documents.

Senior lawyer Rakesh Dwidevi further explained that the Supreme Court agreed with the EC’s argument that it reserves the right to examine the citizenship of residents for maintaining “clean and pure” electoral rolls, and Aadhaar in no way can substitute as a document for proving one’s citizenship.

The top court also said that the EC should verify the authenticity and genuineness of Aadhaar numbers submitted before it, and also ensure that those with forged or fraudulent entries are not entertained.

The court’s fresh observations on Aadhaar inclusion in the SIR drive come on the back of a clutch of petitions filed in the top court, challenging the Election Commission's SIR/verification drive in Bihar, months ahead of the state elections. Notably, the Aadhaar card was not among the 11 documents enumerated by the poll panel for conducting the voter verification drive in the poll-bound state. Several petitioners had objected to the exclusion of Aadhaar, the most commonly used government ID, from the list of 11 documents.

- IANS