Our Bureau
New Delhi
This Monday, on September 8th, the Supreme Court has stated that the Election Commission must accept the Aadhaar as a proof of identity. They have issued an order to the EC to include it on a list of the other 11 documents that are considered as ‘valid’ documents for re-verification of voters ahead of the Bihar Assembly election bound to happen later this year.
The Supreme Court issued a verbal order this morning, in the ‘special intensive revision’ case. The bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi has stated that the Aadhaar cards should be accepted as the 12th document to establish the identity of an individual to be part of the electoral roll.
The Election Commission had stated that 99.6% of the 7.24 crore voters in the draft roll had already submitted their documents, and if they now start the inclusion of Aadhaar card it won’t serve any purpose. As per them the Aadhaar could be forged and was, therefore, an unsuitable option to establish the identity of an individual.
However, the Supreme Court had dismissed the Election Commission’s plea stating that the commission could ‘verify the genuineness of the Aadhaar Card’. The issued order from the court highlights an observation from a few months back stating that the risk of forgery that the commission is talking about to rule out the other two ID cards can be said for any of the other 11 documents that are being considered.
Not only that but the court had also asked for the explanation from the poll panel on the notices that have been issued to the poll officials for not accepting the Aadhaar cards of the voters.
