In this image released by @ECISVEEP via X on March 18, 2025, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar with Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi during a meeting between Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and technical experts of Election Commission of India (ECI), in New Delhi.
| Photo Credit: PTI/@ECISVEEP
The Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday (March 18, 2025) set the ball rolling for linking Aadhaar with Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers. The poll body said it would soon begin technical consultations with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on the issue.
The decision was taken after a high-level meeting the full commission, led by Chief Election Commission Gyanesh Kumar, had with Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan; Secretary, MeitY, S. Krishnan; CEO, UIDAI, Bhuvnesh Kumar; a senior official of the Legislative Department and technical experts of the EC, an official statement here said.
Commenting on the EC statement on its intent to link EPIC Voter ID numbers with Aadhaar numbers, the Empowered Action Group of Leaders and Experts (EAGLE) of the Congress in a statement said the EC must consult all political parties/stakeholders and assure them that “there are sufficient guardrails to not deny a single eligible voter the right to vote”.
The EC, however, said linking of EPIC with Aadhaar would only be done as per provisions of Article 326, which says voting rights can only be given to citizens. Aadhaar card only establishes the identity of a person.
It further said the linking would also take into effect as per the provisions of Sections 23(4), 23(5) and 23(6) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and in line with the Supreme Court judgment in WP (civil) No. 177/2023.
According to Section 23(6) of the RP Act, 1950: “No application for inclusion in electoral rolls shall be deleted for inability of an individual to furnish or intimate Aadhaar number due to such sufficient cause as may be prescribed”.
This in effect means that linkage would be done only in cases where Aadhaar has been submitted voluntarily by the elector.
The EC has informed the Supreme Court in 2023 that it has already uploaded nearly 66.23 crore Aadhaar cards in the process of finalising the electoral rolls.
In the same year, the poll body told the Parliament that it has launched the programme to collect the Aadhaar numbers of existing and prospective electors on a voluntary basis from August 1, 2022 in all States and union territories. While the consent is obtained from the voter for Aadhaar authentication in Form 6B, there is no provision for withdrawing the consent.
Duplicate entries
The linking of Aadhar and Voter ID was first tried by the EC in February 2015 when it launched the National Electoral Rolls Purification and Authentication Program (NERPAP) to address the issue of duplicate entries in the electoral rolls. It had linked more than 300 million voters in a span of three months.
However, the Supreme Court in an interim order, in August 2015, held that the mandatory use of Aadhaar should only be for welfare schemes and PAN linking. Following this order, the NERPAP exercise was discontinued.
The move to begin linking EPIC with Aadhaar comes close on the heels of a controversy when the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal had flagged duplicate EPIC numbers being issued to voters in different States.
Opposition parties have raised the matter both inside and outside Parliament. Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi had also raised the matter in the Lok Sabha. Earlier, the Congress had alleged voter list manipulation during the Maharashtra Assembly polls.
Published – March 18, 2025 09:32 pm IST