Supreme Court asks if access to Aadhaar can make a foreigner a voter
Supreme Court questions whether access to Aadhaar can let a foreigner be added to the voter list as it hears a petition against the Election Commission’s ongoing SIR
The Supreme Court, which had ordered Aadhaar to be included as the “12th document” during the hearings on Bihar SIR, has asked whether a foreigner in possession of the document should automatically be included in the electoral roll.
During a hearing on Wednesday (November 27), Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant asked that if a foreigner in India, somehow gaining access to Aadhaar to get subsidised ration for his children, should also be made a voter.
CJI on Aadhaar
“Aadhaar is the creation of a statute. Nobody can dispute the use of the Aadhaar card to avail welfare benefits. But suppose a person comes from a neighbouring country to India, works as a labourer or a rickshaw puller, he accesses Aadhaar to provide subsidised ration for his children-that is our constitutional ethos and morality, but does it mean that since he has got Aadhaar, he should be made a voter also?” the CJI asked senior advocate Kapil Sibal as quoted by The Hindu.
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Sibal, appearing for the petitioners, started the argument by challenging the validity of the SIR exercise being conducted by the Election Commission. Sibal further stated that the view might be applicable to border states, but cannot be true for states like Kerala and Bihar.
‘EC’s inherent jurisdiction’
During the hearing, Justice Joymalya Bagchi said that it was in EC’s inherent jurisdiction to check and verify entries in the voter lists which are of doubtful integrity, adding that one cannot expect the EC to function like an “inert post office”.
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“Any exclusionary step or attempt taken by the EC is against the constitutional scheme. Asking the elector to fill up and submit an enumeration form is an exclusionary measure. Don’t you think there are millions of illiterate women in this country? Will they not be excluded from the voter list? Any exclusion of a name from the electoral roll must follow a reasonable process,” said Sibal.