Plea in HC for linking of voter ID cards with Aadhaar

New Delhi: A plea was filed in the Delhi High Court on Monday seeking direction to the Election Commission (EC) to link Voter ID with Aadhaar numbers to curtail bogus and duplicate voting in polls.

The petition, which is likely to come up for hearing on Tuesday, also sought that EC be directed to take appropriate steps to implement ‘Aadhaar based election voting system’ to ensure maximum participation of citizens in polls and to curtail fake and fabricated votes.

Advocate and BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay, who had filed the PIL, said “… It is pertinent to point out that once Aadhaar is created, mere linking of the same with Voter ID would not tantamount to infringement of any fundamental right guaranteed under the Constitution.”

The plea said linking of Aadhaar with Voter ID may not be a mandatory requirement and therefore, failure to do the linking would not deprive citizens of basic right of exercising his right to vote.

The proposed Aadhaar-based voting system involves fingerprint of the voter which is saved in the government’s database with an individual’s Aadhaar number, the petition said.

In a separate petition, Upadhyay sought a direction to the Centre through the Ministry of Law and Justice to take appropriate steps to link movable and immovable property documents of citizens with their Aadhaar number to curb corruption, black money generation and ‘benami’ transactions.

“If the government link property with Aadhaar, it will lead to an increment of 2 per cent in annual growth. It will clean out electoral process, which is dominated by black money and benami transaction and thrives on a cycle of large black investments… use of political strength to amass private wealth, all with disdain of the citizen,” the petition alleged.