Aadhaar-voter ID linkage: Election Commission, UIDAI experts to begin technical consultations

The meeting comes against the backdrop of allegations of irregularities in electoral rolls and identical numbers in multiple EPICs.

New Delhi: Amid concerns raised by the Opposition over the purity of electoral rolls, the Election Commission (EC) is getting ready to link Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) with Aadhaar numbers of those who have provided it voluntarily.

The poll body on Tuesday said it is initiating technical consultations with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) soon for the seeding exercise, after Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar held a meeting with Home Secretary Govind Mohan, Legislative Secretary Rajiv Mani, MeiTY Secretary S Krishnan and UIDAI CEO Bhuvnesh Kumar.

The meeting, which was also attended by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, comes against the backdrop of allegations of irregularities in electoral rolls and identical numbers in multiple EPICs levelled by the Opposition inside and outside Parliament. Questions were also raised about cloned Aadhaar numbers being used to enrol as voters.

In a statement, the EC made it clear that Aadhaar does not prove one's citizenship and it only establishes the identity of a person. Voting rights are given to a person only as per Article 326 of the Constitution, which fixes various criteria to enrol as voter, including adult suffrage and citizenship, it said.

“Therefore, it was decided that the linking of elector photo identity card (EPIC) with Aadhaar will be done only as per the provisions of Article 326 of the Constitution, Sections 23(4), 23(5) and 23(6) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and in line with the Supreme Court judgment (of 2023),” it said.

Accordingly, the statement said, technical consultations between UIDAI and the technical experts of the EC “are to begin soon”. The EC had in September 2023 told the Supreme Court that 66.23 crore voters have voluntarily submitted their Aadhaar numbers to them. The total count of voters stands at 99.22 crore at present.

The provisions in the Representation of the People Act, 1950 provides for collection of Aadhaar numbers for enrolling as voters but a person cannot be denied this right solely on the basis of his inability to provide their Aadhaar number.

While the Supreme Court has maintained that Aadhaar numbers could be used only for welfare programmes, the Election Commission had earlier told the apex court that it is not mandatory for people to provide their Aadhaar number for registering as a voter.

The EC had in February 2015 launched the National Electoral Rolls Purification and Authentication Programme (NERPAP) in which Aadhaar was to be linked with EPIC in a bid to remove duplicate entries in voters’ lists. However, the Supreme Court later ordered that Aadhaar could be used only for welfare schemes and PAN linking following which NERPAP was put on hold.

Later, The Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021 amended the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, to allow Electoral Registration Officers to require existing or prospective electors to provide their Aadhaar numbers for the purpose of establishing identity on a voluntary basis.

“The Election Commission vide its instruction dated 4 July, 2022, has launched the programme to collect the Aadhaar number of existing and prospective electors on a voluntary basis from 1 August, 2022 in all States and Union territories,” the Ministry of Law and Justice informed Lok Sabha on February 9 last year.

The deadline for an existing voter to voluntarily provide their Aadhaar number had expired on 31 March, 2024. The linking of Aadhaar with EPIC has not yet started, the Ministry had said then.