TN political party files petition seeking Aadhaar-Voter ID linkage

Files plea saying the linkage will stop issue of multiple, illegal and false voter IDs in the state

A political party in Tamil Nadu has moved a petition with the Madras High Court seeking directions to the government to link the Aadhaar with voter identity cards to stop the issue of multiple, illegal and false voter IDs in Tamil Nadu. The High Court has issued a notice to the Chief Election Commission and others on the matter.

A petition filed by M L Ravi, president of Desiya Makkal Sakthi Katchi (DMSK), said that the Election Commission prepared the electoral rolls using a process of intensive revision that involved house-to-house enumeration. Ravi claimed the system is flawed and that the electoral rolls are replete with errors. Efforts to correct these errors with support from political parties end up in corrupt practices, he said.

In the draft electoral rolls released by Election commission of India, there are 270,000 fewer voters in Chennai compared to last year.

Besides, if the number of contestants is high, the number of booth agents would also be high while the space in the polling booths would be small. The Centre's Unique Identification, Aadhaar, is robust enough to eliminate duplicate and fake identities and can be authenticated in an easy, cost-effective way.

While the Election Commission of India had earlier initiated a process to link voter identity cards with Aadhaar, it was not pursued further. Linking Aadhaar to voters cards will also help eliminate booth agents of candidates, collusion of officials and other irregularities.

Aadhaar linkage will help save cost and taxpayers money, and the fingerprint reading will eliminate fake, duplicate and repeat voters in the list.

A division bench hearing the petition issued notice and the Union Law Ministry and Home Ministry were also impleaded in the case. According to sources, the Election Commission has supported the petition.

The petition comes after the Supreme Court issued an order last week, making Aadhaar mandatory for PAN card linking and tax returns, while it was said that individuals and companies cannot collect Aadhaar data.