Aadhaar, voter ID & ration cards can't be considered for SIR: EC
NEW DELHI: Disagreeing with
Supreme Court
's prima facie view that
Aadhaar card
, voter ID card and ration card be considered valid documents for its SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar, EC told the court that they cannot be relied upon — Aadhaar is just an identity proof; there are a large number of fake ration cards floating around in the country; and relying on existing voter cards would make the special drive futile.
It, however, said citizenship of a person will not terminate on account of not being part of the electoral rolls. In a voluminous affidavit filed in SC late evening, the poll panel also said that there was no violation of any law and fundamental rights of voter in conducting the exercise and pleaded the court to dismiss the petition filed by 11 opposition parties, NGOs and some residents of Bihar for scrapping of SIR and holding the Nov assembly election on the previous electoral rolls which were revised in Dec.
It said Section 9 of Citizenship Act has no application to SIR exercise. 'Under the SIR exercise, citizenship of an individual will not terminate on account of the fact that he/she is held to be ineligible for registration in the electoral rolls,' the affidavit said.
Justifying its decision not to treat EPIC as proof of eligibility for inclusion in the electoral roll, EC said, 'The conceptual and procedural integrity of a de-novo revision would stand undermined if EPICS, which are merely reflective of prior entries, are used to validate entries in a roll that is required to be constructed anew.
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The EPIC, being a by-product of an earlier electoral roll, cannot substitute the verification process mandated for fresh preparation.
'
EC said given the widespread existence of fake ration cards, it has not been prescribed within a list of 11 documents to be relied upon for screening eligibility.
'And it is submitted that Aadhaar is merely a proof of identity of a person.A person who seeks to claim a benefit can utilise an Aadhaar card to show he/she is who he/she claims to be... There are restrictions on usage of Aadhaar to check eligibility under Article 326,' it said.
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