Bill for Aadhaar link to poll rolls on LS list today

THE ELECTION Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 seeks to allow electoral registration officers to seek Aadhaar number of people who want to register as voters ‘for the purpose of establishing the identity’

New Delhi, Dec. 19: A bill on electoral reforms which seeks to link electoral rolls with the Aadhaar ecosystem to weed out duplicacy, is listed for introduction in Lok Sabha on Monday. The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 seeks to allow electoral registration officers to seek Aadhaar number of people who want to register as voters “for the purpose of establishing the identity”.

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

At the same time, the amendment bill makes it clear that “no application for inclusion of name in the electoral roll shall be denied and no entries in the electoral roll shall be deleted for inability of an individual to furnish or intimate Aadhaar number due to such sufficient cause as may be prescribed”.

Such people will be allowed to furnish other alternative documents as may be prescribed.

According to the bill circulated to Lok Sabha members ahead of its introduction, various sections of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and 1951 will be amended.