New Delhi: The Supreme Court cleared that Aadhaar card could not be used as proof of citizenship and the document is to make sure that the government's welfare scheme should reach people. The observation was made by the bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi while hearing a batch of petitions challenging the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in several states.
"Aadhaar is a creation of statute for availing benefits. Just because a person was granted Aadhaar for ration, should he be made a voter also? Suppose someone belongs to a neighbouring country and works as a labourer, shall he be allowed to vote?" the Chief Justice said, as quoted by India Today.
The court stated that the EC could not be treated as a "post office". The Supreme Court's bench said that the poll body has the power to determine the correctness of documents submitted with a Form 6 application seeking inclusion in a voter list.
The top court also fixed timelines for separate pleas contesting the SIR in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal. The apex court asked the poll body to file its reply till December 1 for all the three states. The hearing of pleas for Tamil Nadu is reportedly scheduled for December 4, while pleas from Kerala will be heard on December 2. For West Bengal pleas, the hearing will be held on December 9.
Notably, the assembly elections in these three states are scheduled to be held in the first half of 2026.
Last month, the EC announced the launch of the second phase of the SIR across 12 states and Union Territories (UTs). These 12 states and UTs include Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar clarified that “no documents would be required” during the enumeration phase. The ECI has, however, released a list of “indicative but not exhaustive” documents that may be used during the survey.
