Election Commission to begin linking Voter ID card with Aadhaar
The Election Commission of India said that it is getting ready 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 it will soon initiate technical consultations regarding the exercise with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
While, as per Article 326 of the Indian Constitution, voting rights can only be given to Indian citizens, the Aadhaar card only establishes a person’s identity, the election commission said on Tuesday.
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 issue of ‘duplicate’ EPIC numbers.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Gyanesh Kumar, Election Commissioners, Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Dr Vivek Joshi had a meeting with the Union Home Secretary, Secretary Legislative Department, Secretary The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and CEO, UIDAI and technical experts of the ECI in Nirvachan Sadan, New Delhi on Tuesday.
“Therefore, it was decided that the linking of EPIC with Aadhaar will be done only as per the provisions of Article 326 of the constitution, Section 23(4), 23(5) and 23(6) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and in line with the Supreme Court judgement in WP(civil) No. 177/2023. Accordingly, technical consultations between UIDAI and the technical experts of ECI are to begin soon,” the poll panel said in a press communique after the meeting.