Madras HC issues Notice in Petition to link Aadhaar with Voter ID [Read Petition]

The Madras High Court has issued notice in a petition which calls for the linking of Aadhaar with Voter ID. The Bench of Justices S Manikumar and PT Asha issued notice in the petition filed by Advocate ML Ravi, president of the Desiya Makkal Sakkthi Katchi..When the matter came up for admission today, the Election Commission of India, through Advocate Niranjan Rajagopalan, informed the Court that it supports the plea for Aadhaar linkage..It was also pointed out that the process of linking Aadhaar with Voter ID had earlier been started on voluntary basis prior to the Supreme Court’s Aadhaar verdict. However, the Commission halted the process after the Supreme Court pronounced the judgment. The Commission now seeks to carry it out in line with the judgment, the Court was informed..In his petition, Ravi contends that the Aadhaar ID is robust enough to eliminate duplicate and false entries which creep into the voters’ list during the manual preparation of electoral rolls..He has argued that owing to the current error and corruption-prone manual process, the Courts have often been constrained to direct measures for the purification of electoral rolls. In this regard, specific reference was made to the recent RK Nagar Polls debacle in the state, where the Court was called to intervene on serious allegations of voter fraud and missing entries from electoral rolls..In order to implement Aadhaar linkage with Voter ID, Rajagopalan told the Bench that an amendment to the law would be required. Further, he requested that the appropriate central authorities be added as parties in order to ensure that the process is properly carried out and future challenges are avoided..Accordingly, while issuing notice, the Court has impleaded the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the Union Law Ministry and the Union Home Ministry. The matter will be taken up next after two weeks..Read the Petition: