Not willing to link your Voter ID card with Aadhaar? You may have to explain why to EC, says THIS report

Voters declining to share their Aadhaar numbers with the Election Commission (EC) may be asked to appear before the poll panel and explain the reasons, according to a report.

The proposal is for the poll panel's plan to link Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC), or voter IDs, with the Aadhaar numbers of those who have provided them voluntarily.

The poll panel said last week that it will soon initiate technical consultations regarding the exercise with the Unique Identification Authority of India(UIDAI). Now, a report in the Indian Express says that voters who are not willing to share their Aadhaar numbers with the poll panel could be summoned by the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) to show cause for not providing this information.

An ERO, typically a civil service/revenue officer, is responsible for updating and revising electoral rolls or voter lists for Assembly constituencies.

What is the Aadhaar-Voter ID link plan?

Last week when the poll panel announced its plans to link EPIC or Voter ID Card with Aadhaar, it said voting rights are given to Indian citizens as per Article 326 of the Indian Constitution, the Aadhaar card only establishes a person's identity.

The high-level meeting, which was held between officials of the EC and the Home Ministry, Law Ministry, IT Ministry, and UIDAI, discussed the proposal to ask every voter who doesn’t provide the 12-digit unique identity number to give an explanation in person before an ERO, according to the Indian Express report.

The proposal is likely to be part of the amended Form 6B. In the existing system, Form 6B, meant to collect voters' Aadhaar numbers, lacks options for electors to abstain from providing Aadhaar. It offers only two choices: either provide an Aadhaar or declare, “I am not able to furnish my Aadhaar because I don’t have an Aadhaar number.”

As per the proposal, Form 6B will be tweaked to remove the latter declaration. Instead, it will have just one declaration that the voter is providing an alternative document and will appear before ERO on a given date to explain why he or she is not sharing Aadhaar details.

This change, once approved, has to be notified by the Law Ministr. The change will likely happen before the next Assembly elections in Bihar, according to the Indian Express report.

Questions were raised over integrity of voter list

The poll panel's move comes at a time when some opposition parties had raised concerns over the integrity of electoral rolls. Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress has raised the ‘duplicate’ EPIC numbers issue.

The 2021 amendment to the Representation of the People Act, 1951, enabled Aadhaar linking with EPICs, and the poll panel began collecting Aadhaar numbers from electors voluntarily. However, the poll panel is yet to link the two databases. The exercise was meant to aid in detecting duplicate voter ID registrations. However, linking Aadhaar was not mandatory.

The EC had in September 2023 told the Supreme Court that 66.23 crore voters have voluntarily submitted their Aadhaar numbers. India has about 99.2 crore voters at present.