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LOK SABHA CLEARS BILL TO LINK AADHAAR WITH VOTER ID

Opposition says bill has legal drawbacks, is against the Supreme Court verdict, and needs to be sent to the Standing Committee

Amid uproar by the Opposition, Lok Sabha on Monday passed “The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021”, which seeks to allow electoral registration officers to seek the Aadhaar number of people who want to register as voters “for the purpose of establishing identity”.

The Bill also seeks to allow the electoral registration officers to get Aadhaar numbers from “persons already included in the electoral roll for the purposes of authentication of entries in the electoral roll, and to identify registration of the name of the same person in the electoral roll of more than one constituency or more than once in the same constituency.”

The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill 2021, piloted by Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, was passed by a voice vote after a brief discussion during which some opposition members demanded that it be referred to a parliamentary panel. Rejecting the demand, Rijiju said various proposals which are part of the bill have already been suggested and recommended by the Standing Committee of Law and Personnel. The minister further said that the bill will cleanse the election system. The bill seeks to allow electoral registration officers get the Aadhaar number of people who want to register as voters “for the purpose of establishing the identity”.

“The Opposition has not understood the objectives of the bill. This will make the election process more credible,” Rijiju said. The minister said the government is attempting to stop bogus voting and that is why the House should support the bill. “The bill fully qualifies the Supreme Court judgement,” he said.

Speaking to a news agency, Rijiju said that currently it’s not mandatory to link Aadhaar to an electoral roll, but with this bill, Centre will make it mandatory to sieve out fake voters. “The Parliamentary Standing Committee has recommended this and asked us to expedite the process of making this into an Act.” Rijiju said that there should be a proper discussion on election reforms. The Opposition was asked to participate and voice their opinions in the discussion, but they created chaos. Rijiju said, “The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill proposes to replace the word ‘wife’ with ‘spouse’ to make the act (Representation of the People Act of 1951) gender-neutral. It will also expand the limits of the election premises acquisition.” “Even after 18 years, the system said that one has to wait a whole year to exercise their voting rights if they could not register on January 1 (of the year of revision of electoral roll). This bill will allow 4 qualifying dates a year to register as voters,” Rijiju said.

However, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said in the Lok Sabha, “Aadhaar is only meant to be proof of residence. It’s not proof of citizenship. If you are in a position asking Aadhaar for voters, all you are getting is a document that reflects residence, not citizenship. You are potentially giving the vote to non-citizens.”

Following the government’s introduction of the bill Election Laws (Amendment) Bill 2021 in the Lok Sabha, Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, said that this Bill should be sent to Standing Committee. This has a lot of legal drawbacks. It is against the Supreme Court verdict and one which violates our privacy. This might strip off lakhs of people of their electoral rights.”

Chowdhury claimed that the bill will curb people’s personal liberty. “We don’t have the data protection laws. You can’t bulldoze such a bill on people,” he said.

Chowdhury’s party colleague Manish Tewari said voting is a legal right and it is beyond the legislative competence of the Aadhaar Act to be linked with the electoral laws. Tewari also claimed that the bill violates the Supreme Court judgement on Justice (Retd) K.S. Puttaswamy case. On 24 August 2017, a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court delivered a unanimous verdict in the Justice (retd) K.S. Puttaswamy case affirming that the Constitution guarantees to each individual a fundamental right to privacy.

Reacting to the introduction of the bill, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday said that the Centre is curtailing the independence of the Election Commission by bringing the legislation. Owaisi alleged that the bill will suppress people’s right to exercise franchise freely.

Earlier in the day, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi had moved an adjournment motion notice in Lok Sabha to discuss “Statehood and inclusion of Ladakh in Schedule VI of Constitution of India.”

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