Implementing the Supreme Court’s order, the Election Commission Tuesday issued instructions to the Bihar Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to treat Aadhaar as proof of identity, not citizenship, for the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state.
The EC had included an indicative list of 11 documents, which included caste certificate, birth certificate, passport and educational certificates, in its June 24 order for the SIR. Hearing a batch of petitions that challenged the SIR order, the Supreme Court Monday ordered the EC to accept Aadhaar as the 12th document.
In a letter to the Bihar CEO, which was uploaded on the EC website on Tuesday evening, the commission said: “The Aadhaar Card shall be treated as the 12th document, in addition to the 11 documents… The Aadhaar Card is to be accepted and utilised as a proof of identity and not as a proof of citizenship, in terms of Section 9 of the Aadhaar (Delivery of Financial And Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act…”
It said, “Under Section 23(4) of the Representation of People Act, 1950, the Aadhaar Card is already one of the documents enumerated for the purpose of establishing the identity of a person.”
The EC added that these instructions should be communicated to all District Election Officers, Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and Assistant EROs. “Any instance of non-compliance or refusal to accept Aadhaar in accordance with this directive shall be treated with utmost seriousness,” the EC said.
The EC had decided to hold an SIR for the whole country, starting with Bihar where Assembly elections are due. All registered electors of Bihar were required to submit new enumeration forms by July 25 in order to make it to the draft roll published on August 1.
All those added to the rolls after 2003, when the last intensive revision was carried out, were required to submit eligibility documents from the list of 11 indicated by the EC. All those born after July 1, 1987 were required to submit documents establishing their parents’ date and/ or place of birth as well, establishing their citizenship.
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The court had on July 10 asked the EC to consider accepting Aadhaar, ration card and Voter IDs, which are more widely held documents. The Commission, however, said through a counter-affidavit that Aadhaar did not constitute proof of citizenship.
However, the Supreme Court had ordered EC to accept Aadhaar for the 65 lakh electors whose names had been cut in the draft stage should they come forward to be included on the rolls again.
Out of the total 7.89 crore electors, 7.24 crore made it to the draft list, with 65 lakh being deleted as the Booth Level Officers marked them either dead, permanently shifted, untraceable or registered at multiple places.
The claims and objections period ended on September 1. The final roll is to be published on September 30.
