New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to examine a plea seeking contempt action against the Election Commission for insisting on furnishing Aadhaar numbers to enrol new voters. A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud noted that the Election Commission has contended that it is addressing the issue raised.
The petitioner claimed though the poll watchdog had given an assurance that Aadhaar numbers were not obligatory for new voter registration, however, the forms remained unchanged. The bench said that a petition was disposed of last year after the Election Commission undertook that it was looking into the issue and it had not set any timeline for compliance. The bench said it was not a case for initiating contempt action.
After hearing the matter, the bench, also comprising justices Manoj Misra and Satish Chandra Sharma refused to entertain the plea filed by G Niranjan. In September last year, the Election Commission had told the Supreme Court that it would make "clarificatory" changes in its forms for adding new voters and updating records of old ones in the electoral rolls, that providing Aadhaar numbers for voter ID cards is optional.
The Election Commission (EC) counsel had contended before a bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud that the submission of the Aadhar number was not mandatory under Rule 26-B of the Registration of Electors (Amendment) Rules 2022. The Election Commission has come out with a new rule on linking Aadhaar with voter lists to weed out duplicate entries.
The EC counsel submitted that nearly 66,23,00,000 Aadhar numbers had already been uploaded in the process of finalising electoral rolls. The apex court was informed that the Aadhaar number was not mandatory under Rule 26-B of the Registration of Electors (Amendment) Rules 2022 and the EC was looking into issuing appropriate clarificatory changes in the forms introduced for that purpose. The PIL filed by G Niranjan sought clarificatory changes in Rule 26B of the Registration of Electors (Amendment) Rules, 2022.
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