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The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday, July 10, told the Supreme Court that Aadhaar card is not proof of citizenship. The apex court was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls ahead of the Bihar assembly elections.
The revision of electoral rolls is an exercise undertaken by the ECI to remove the names of non-citizens from the electoral rolls. As part of this revision in Bihar, the ECI on June 24, had issued a list of 11 documents, including birth certificate, passport, matriculation/education certificate and so on, which can be used to prove citizenship.
However, this list did not include Aadhar card, PAN card or driving licenses, which are commonly used as ID proof across India.
During the hearing on Thursday, the petitioners questioned the ECI’s exclusion of Aadhar card from the list of documents. One of the petitioners questioned why the Aadhar card, which is an acceptable document according to the Representation of People’s Act, not accepted for the Bihar SIR.
Responding to this, Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the ECI said that, “Aadhar cannot be used as proof of citizenship”.
To this, the bench comprising Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi reacted by saying that issues concerning citizenship cannot be determined by the ECI but rather by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
“We have powers under Article 326,” replied the ECI counsel.
Justice Bagchi observed that removing individuals already listed in the 2025 electoral roll just months ahead of an election could deprive them of their right to vote, as they would be forced to file appeals and navigate a lengthy bureaucratic process. “There is nothing wrong in undertaking an intensive exercise to cleanse the rolls and ensure non-citizens are removed. But doing so only a couple of months before a proposed election could unfairly disenfranchise legitimate voters,” he remarked.
Meanwhile, the ECI on Wednesday, July 9, had posted an excerpt from Article 326 of the Constitution of India on social media platform X, in a perceived attempt to justify the ongoing SIR exercise in Bihar.
“The elections to the House of the People and to the Legislative Assembly of every State shall be on the basis of adult suffrage; that is to say, every person who is a citizen of India and who is not less than twenty-one years of age on such date as may be fixed in that behalf by or under any law made by the appropriate Legislature and is not otherwise disqualified under this Constitution or any law made by the appropriate Legislature on the ground of non-residence, unsoundness of mind, crime or corrupt or illegal practice, shall be entitled to be registered as a voter at any such election,” quoted the poll body.