Supreme Court Issues Notice on Plea Against Use of Aadhaar as Proof of Citizenship and Age

THE SUPREME Court on Tuesday issued notice on a plea against alleged use of Aadhaar as proof of citizenship and age despite laws to the contrary. A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice V Mohana sought the response of the Centre, states, union territories, Election Commission of India and Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on a PIL filed by Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay. The plea pointed out that Section 9 of the Aadhaar Act 2016, expressly states that Aadhaar is “not the evidence of citizenship or domicile” and a UIDAI notification dated 22.08.2023 clearly states that Aadhaar “is proof of identity, not of citizenship, address or date of birth”. The apex court and various High Courts too have held that Aadhaar is not the proof of age, he pointed out. “Despite this, the Aadhaar is not only being used as a proof of age, citizenship; domicile for school admission, property purchase and to obtain birth certificate, ration card, driving licence but also being used in Application Form for New Voter Registration (Form-6) as a proof of date of birth, proof of residence,” the PIL said. Consequently, “infiltrators; illegal immigrants are obtaining various documents using the Aadhaar,” it said. Upadhyay pointed out that “currently, as per Form-6 of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, Aadhaar can be submitted as proof of date of birth and residence, which runs contrary to the UIDAI Office Memorandum and the judgments passed by this Hon’ble Court and various High Courts”. He said that this raises the legal question whether Form-6 has become temporally unreasonable for failing to keep up with the legislative intent and whether the enrollment system under Form-6 is arbitrary for failing to provide a robust system of verification and distinction between lawfully entered foreign nationals and infiltrators. Highlighting the ill-effects of illegal immigration on the polity, the PIL said “infiltration is a weapon of political parties to subvert electoral process for their benefit. Bengal, Assam and other Northeastern states have been afflicted by cheap political tactics”. “The infiltrators are helped by either the party in power or the opposition parties, and are also helped with identity documents such as aadhaar/ration card. Once, they have a plethora of documents, they enrol themselves in the voting list and become eligible as Indian voters. Thus, the sacrosanct nature of the election process is compromised,” the PIL said.