THE SUPREME COURT TODAY directed that the Aadhaar card must be treated as the twelfth document for establishing identity for inclusion in the Special Intensive Revision (‘SIR’) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, however, clarified that Aadhaar shall not be treated as proof of citizenship. “Authorities shall be entitled to verify the authenticity and genuineness of the Aadhaar card itself,” the bench said, while asking the Election Commission of India (‘ECI’) to issue instructions to its officials for the acceptance of Aadhaar as identity proof.
The Court noted that while the Aadhaar Act makes it clear that the card is not proof of citizenship, under the Representation of People’s Act it is recognised as one of the documents to establish identity. It recorded the poll panel’s undertaking that Aadhaar will henceforth be accepted for this purpose.
The order came on pleas by RJD and others, who alleged that ground-level officials were refusing to accept Aadhaar as a stand-alone document despite three earlier court directions.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for RJD, told the bench that officials were insisting on one of the 11 documents specified in the ECI’s June 24 notification, and filed 24 affidavits from voters whose Aadhaar cards were rejected. “Aadhaar card is the universally available document with the population. If they cannot accept that, what kind of inclusion exercise are they carrying out? They want to exclude the poor,” Sibal told the bench.
Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, for the ECI, maintained that Aadhaar could not be accepted as proof of citizenship.
The bench also issued notice to the ECI on a plea by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay seeking directions to conduct SIR of electoral rolls in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry, all heading to Assembly polls in 2026.
On August 22, the Court had directed that persons excluded from the draft roll during the SIR in Bihar may submit applications for inclusion online, without insisting on physical forms. At the last hearing, it refrained from extending the September 1 deadline for claims, objections and corrections after the ECI assured that even belated applications after the September 1 deadline would be considered before finalisation.
The batch of petitions before the court, filed by RJD MP Manoj Jha, Association for Democratic Reforms (‘ADR’), PUCL, activist Yogendra Yadav, TMC MP Mahua Moitra, and former Bihar MLA Mujahid Alam, challenge the ECI’s June 24 directive requiring large sections of voters to furnish proof of citizenship.
The petitions contend that exclusion of widely held documents like Aadhaar, Electoral Photo Identity Card (‘EPIC’) (Voter identity card), and ration cards would disproportionately affect the poor and marginalised, particularly in rural Bihar.
