Aadhaar Card Not Compulsory for Voter Registration, EC Informs Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Election Commission has given an undertaking to the Supreme Court that the production of Aadhaar cards is not mandatory for voter registration.

This removes the fears that many voters’ names might be deleted for failing to Aadhaar-seed their voter I-card.

Through a petition, Telangana Congress leader G. Niranjan contended that a mandatory requirement for Aadhaar-linking of voter cards violated the right to privacy.

Senior advocate Sukumar Pattjoshi and the poll panel’s standing counsel, Amit Sharma, gave the undertaking during the hearing of a petition.

Pattjoshi stated that the submission of the Aadhaar number is not mandatory under Rule 26B of the Registration of Electors (Amendment) Rules 2022.

A government notification had declared April 1, 2023, “as the date on or before which every person whose name is included in the electoral roll may intimate his Aadhaar number….”