SC directs ECI to accept Aadhaar, Ration Cards for Bihar polls

The Supreme Court has directed the Election Commission of India to accept Aadhaar, Ration Cards, and EPIC as valid identification for the upcoming Bihar assembly elections.

This decision comes amid the Special Intensive Revision exercise, aiming to ensure voter verification.

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi welcomed the move, hoping it aligns with the 1995 Babu Lal Hussein case precedent.

New Delhi [India], July 11 (ANI): All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court's decision asking the Election Commission (EC) to consider Aadhar, EPIC and Ration cards as Identification proof amid the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar ahead of the upcoming assembly elections, and hoped for the 1995 precedent on Babu Lal Hussein case to be followed in "letter and spirit."

"Bihar Election 'Intensive Revision': The Supreme Court ordered that, in addition to 11 documents listed by the Election Commission of India, three more should be considered: Aadhaar, EPIC & Ration Cards. This is a welcome order, and we hope that the precedent set in the 1995 judgement of the Babu Lal Hussein case is followed in letter and spirit. AIMIM Bihar President Akhtarul Iman had also challenged the ECI's SIR before the Supreme Court & was represented by Advocate Nizam Pasha," Owaisi posed on X.

Accusing the "Election Commission sources" of misinterpreting SC's order, he criticised the reports quoting them, which claimed that the constitutional body accepts Aadhar as per page 16 of the Special Intensive Revision, while also informing about the EPIC number being "pre-printed" on the enumeration forms being meted out.

He said that the apex court asking the Election Commission to include three additional documents was meant for dealing with the verification of voters and was not for mere record-keeping. "These Election Commission 'sources' are deliberately misinterpreting the order of the SC. The SC's order is saying that these three should be considered for the purposes of date/place of birth, in addition to the 11 documents referred to by the ECI. It's not for formality's sake or for record-keeping, but when dealing with verification of voters," Owaisi said.

Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh on Friday stated that the Election Commission of India's (ECI) "spin" on "no stay" being given has been clearly "exposed" by the Supreme Court. Ramesh posted a picture of the order on X, stating that Page 7 of the order clearly indicated that no stay was requested by any of the petitioners. He said that deliberately "misleading" headline management does not befit a constitutional authority.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court allowed the Election Commission to continue with its exercise of conducting a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar. A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi did not stay the SIR process but asked the ECI to consider allowing Aadhaar, ration cards, and electoral photo identity cards as admissible documents to prove voter identity during the SIR of electoral rolls being undertaken in Bihar.

"We are of the prima facie opinion that in the interest of justice, the Election Commission will also include documents like Aadhaar, Ration Card, Voter ID card, etc. It is for the ECI to decide whether it wants to accept the documents or not, and if it does not, then provide reasons for its decision, which shall be sufficient to satisfy the petitioners.

Meanwhile, petitioners are not pressing for an interim stay," the bench stated in its order. In its order, the top court noted that the timeline for the process is very short since elections in Bihar are due in November. The apex court posted for hearing on July 28 the pleas challenging ECI's move to conduct SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar and asked the poll panel to file its affidavit within one week.

During the hearing, the bench opined that Aadhaar should be included within the list of documents permissible as an ID proof. The apex court was hearing a batch of pleas challenging the Election Commission of India's move to conduct the SIR of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar. The petitions challenging the ECI decision were filed by RJD MP Manoj Jha, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), PUCL, activist Yogendra Yadav, Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra, and former Bihar MLA Mujahid Alam.

The petitions sought a direction to quash the ECI's June 24 directive, which requires large sections of voters in Bihar to submit proof of citizenship to remain on the electoral rolls. The petition also raised concerns over the exclusion of widely held documents like Aadhaar and ration cards, stating that this would disproportionately affect the poor and marginalised voters, especially in rural Bihar. (ANI)