Lok Sabha passes Bill to link voter ID with Aadhaar
Amid protests by Opposition parties, the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which seeks to create a legal framework for linking electoral roll data with Aadhaar, was passed in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
The Bill intends to amend the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and the Representation of the People Act, 1951, for the purpose and the Modi government said it will curb the menace of duplicate voters.
The proposed legislation also seeks to amend Section 20 of the RP Act, 1950 and the Section 60 of the RP Act, 1951, for replacing the word “wife” with the word “spouse” and thus making the statutes gender neutral.
Law Minister Kiren Rijiju introduced the Bill even as the members of Opposition parties were in the well of the Lok Sabha, protesting against the government and waving placards on multiple issues.
“You cannot bulldoze this kind of a legislative document, which is replete with legal infirmities,” said Adhir Chowdhury, leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha.
He demanded that the Bill should be sent to a parliamentary standing committee for scrutiny first, while his party colleague Manish Tewari said the Aadhaar Act did not allow for linking of the Aadhaar number to the electoral roll.
“The Aadhaar Act is very explicit. It is an Act which is for the targeted delivery of financial and other subsidy benefits and services. Voting is a legal right,” said Tewari.
N K Premachandran of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) said the move will infringe upon the right to privacy, while the TMC and Asaduddin Owaisi of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen pointed out that the Bill is not in sync with the Supreme Court order of September 26, 2018.
Rijiju, however, dismissed these concerns as “baseless”, saying the SC order is being misinterpreted and that the move is aimed at making the electoral rolls credible.
He also pointed out that proposed legislation will not make it mandatory for a citizen to link Aadhaar with voter ID card.
The EC had in 2015 launched the National Electoral Law Purification and Authentication Programme to link Aadhaar numbers with voter ID. But the programme had to be suspended after the SC on August 11, 2015, ordered that the use of Aadhaar will be optional for availing welfare schemes of the government.
After the SC in September 2018 upheld the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar Act, the EC in August 2019 proposed that the government should amend the election laws to empower electoral registration officers to seek Aadhaar numbers of existing and new voters.
Watch latest videos by DH here:
Deccan Herald is on WhatsApp Channels | Join now for Breaking News & Editor's Picks