Aadhaar Card Not Proof Of Citizenship : Election Commission Tells Supreme Court

Aadhaar card is not a proof of citizenship, the Election Commission of India told the Supreme Court on Thursday (July 10), during the hearing of the petitions challenging the "Special Intensive Revision(SIR)" of Electoral Rolls in Bihar.

The petitioners questioned the ECI's exclusion of Aadhaar card and the Voter card from the list of eleven documents specified by the ECI as citizenship documents for the enumeration of voters, who were not present in the 2003 electoral roll.

Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, for one of the petitioners, pointed out that even though Aadhaar card is an acceptable document as per the Representation of Peoples Act, the ECI does not accept it for the Bihar SIR.

The bench comprising Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Joymalya Bagchi asked the ECI why Aadhaar was not acceptable.

In response, Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, for the Election Commission of India, said, "Aadhaar Card cannot be used as proof of citizenship." Dwivedi added that Aadhaar card is only an authentication of one's identity and does not show citizenship. "It only shows I am I and you are you," he said. He pointed out that Section 9 of the Aadhaar Act 2016 itself said that the Aadhaar number by itself was not a proof of citizenship or domicile.

"But citizenship is an issue to be determined not by the Election Commission of India, but by the MHA," Justice Dhulia said.

"We have powers under Article 326," the ECI counsel replied. The bench shot back saying that the ECI should have then started this exercise much earlier.

"Your decision let us say to disenfranchise the person who is already there on the electoral roll of 2025 would compel this individual to appeal against decision and go through this entire rigmarole and thereby be denied of his right to vote in the ensuing election. There is nothing wrong in you purging electoral rolls through an intensive exercise in order to see that non-citizens don't remain on the role. But if you decide only a couple of months before a proposed election..." Justice Bagchi observed.

The hearing is underway. Live updates can be followed here.

Petitions have been filed by the MPs Mahua Moitra (Trinamool Congress), Manoj Kumar Jha (Rashtriya Janata Dal), leaders of major opposition parties - KC Venugopal (Indian National Congress), Supriya Sule (Nationalist Congress Party - SP), D Raja (Communist Part of India), Harinder Malik (Samajwadi Party. Arvind Sawant( Shiv Sena UBT), Sarfraz Ahmed (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha), Dipankar Bhattacharya ( Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam etc.

NGOs Association for Democratic Reforms, People's Union for Civil Liberties, and activist Yogendra Yadav are the other petitioners.

Also from the hearing - Supreme Court Asks ECI To Consider Aadhaar, Voter ID & Ration Cards For Bihar Electoral Roll Revision; Says Timelines Are Short