Supreme Court to examine plea challenging Centre's decision to link electoral roll data with Aadhaar

Centre had amended Registration of Electors Rules to allow linking Aadhaar details with a voters list to weed out duplicate entries and make election law gender neutral for service voters

The Centre had amended the Registration of Electors Rules to allow linking Aadhaar details with a voters list. (representational iimage) | Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam

The Supreme Court on October 31 agreed to examine a plea challenging the Centre’s decision that enables linking electoral roll data with the Aadhaar ecosystem.

A Bench of Justices S.K. Kaul and Abhay S. Oka tagged the petition filed by former Major General S.G. Vombatkere with a similar pending matter.

“Petitioner has drawn attention to 2019 Aadhaar judgment to contend that only if some benefit is sought to be conferred then Aadhaar can be mandatory but not to deny rights, and the right to vote is the highest of such rights.

“Two other petitions have also been filed by him and there may be some overlapping. Thus, this requires tagging. Tag this petition with that matter,” the Bench said.

Senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that right to vote is one of the most sacred rights and it should not be denied if an individual lacks Aadhaar.

The Centre had earlier amended the Registration of Electors Rules to allow linking Aadhaar details with a voters list to weed out duplicate entries and make election law gender neutral for service voters.