Supreme Court to hear plea seeking Aadhaar-based voting system

The public interest litigation (PIL) wants the centre and EC to be directed to take appropriate steps to link Aadhaar numbers with electoral rolls. Photo: Pradeep Gaur/Mint

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a plea seeking a direction to the Election Commission (EC) to take appropriate steps to implement an “Aadhaar- based election voting system” in order to ensure maximum participation and curtail bogus and duplicate votes.

The matter was brought before a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra who said it would be taken up for hearing after four weeks.

The proposed system aims to rely on the 12-digit unique identity number, and the biometric and demographic information collected under Aadhaar.

It would register a person’s vote after verifying their voter information, including the Aadhaar number, name, address, and date of birth upon matching their fingerprint with the template image stored in the central database (at the time of enrolment).

In this regard, the public interest litigation (PIL) wants the centre and EC to be directed to take appropriate steps to link Aadhaar numbers with electoral rolls.

The PIL filed by advocate and BJP spokesperson Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, says the principle of “one man one vote” demands an equal and guaranteed opportunity to vote to all.

Highlighting its advantages over the existing EVM (electronic voter machine)-based elections, the petition claims that a person would be able to vote where they are, without having to travel to their home constituency. Further, fraud would be checked because it would be relying on fingerprint and biometric data unique to each individual. Being a unique identification, it also would ensure that eligible voters vote only once, the petition added.