'Aadhaar Card Not Proof Of Citizenship': Poll Body To SC On Bihar Electoral Rolls Revision
The Election Commission's comment came during the hearing of the petitions challenging the "Special Intensive Revision" (SIR) of Electoral Rolls in Bihar.
Aadhaar card is not a valid document to determine citizenship, the Election Commission of India told the Supreme Court on Thursday. The poll body's comment came during the hearing of the petitions challenging the 'Special Intensive Revision" (SIR) of Electoral Rolls in Bihar.
The remarks were made in response to the petitioners' queries to the ECI regarding the exclusion of the Aadhaar card and the Voter card from the list of eleven documents specified by the poll body as citizenship documents for the enumeration of voters, who were not present in the 2003 electoral roll.
Appearing for one of the petitioners, senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan pointed out that even though the Aadhaar card is an acceptable document as per the Representation of Peoples Act, the ECI does not accept it for the Bihar SIR.
In response to this, Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the Election Commission of India, said, 'Aadhar Card cannot be used as proof of citizenship."
Additionally, the timing of the Election Commission's 'special intensive revision' of Bihar's electoral rolls – months before the Assembly election – was also questioned by the Supreme Court.
'Your exercise is not the problem… it is the timing," Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia told the Election Commission, noting individuals dropped from the list would have no time to appeal the exclusion.
'There is nothing wrong in the exercise, except that a person will be disenfranchised ahead of the election and s/he won't have the time to defend the exclusion before voting," Justice Dhulia continued.
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First Published:
July 10, 2025, 14:37 IST
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