{"id":178,"date":"2025-08-12T19:10:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T13:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/?p=178"},"modified":"2025-08-12T19:10:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T13:40:14","slug":"sir-row-aadhaar-not-conclusive-proof-of-citizenship-says-sc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/?p=178","title":{"rendered":"SIR row: Aadhaar not conclusive proof of citizenship, says SC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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New Delhi, The Supreme Court on Tuesday remarked that the Election Commission of India (ECI) is correct in asserting that an Aadhaar card does not constitute conclusive proof of citizenship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi further stated that the inclusion or exclusion of citizens and non-citizens from the electoral rolls lies within the mandate of the poll body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The observations were made by the Justice Kant-led Bench while hearing a batch of pleas challenging the Special Intensive Revisions (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe EC is correct in saying Aadhaar cannot be accepted as conclusive proof of citizenship. It has to be verified,” it remarked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the hearing, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the petitioners, argued that the SIR process could lead to large-scale disenfranchisement of vulnerable citizens, especially those unable to submit the required forms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sibal argued that most of the enlisted documents are not available to people in Bihar. \u201cBihar people don’t have these documents, that’s the point,\u201d he submitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To this, the Justice Kant-led Bench said, “It is a very sweeping argument that in Bihar, nobody possesses these documents. Aadhaar and a ration card they have? There must be something to prove you are a citizen of India. Everybody possesses some certificate – you need it even to buy a SIM.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It further remarked that the Aadhaar Act itself makes it clear that an Aadhaar number is not proof of citizenship, and that the ECI\u2019s stand is consistent with this legal position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from Kapil Sibal, a battery of lawyers, including senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Prashant Bhushan and Vrinda Grover, presented their oral arguments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The apex court will resume hearing the matter on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a recently filed affidavit, the ECI opposed the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR)\u2019s demand to disclose constituency and booth-wise details of about 65 lakh electors whose enumeration forms were not submitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The poll body said that the statutory scheme under the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, does not mandate creating or publishing such a list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ADR\u2019s application had sought two directions: first, to publish a constituency and booth-wise list of omitted electors with reasons such as death, permanent migration, duplication, or being untraceable; and second, to disclose the names of electors whose enumeration forms have been “not recommended” by the Booth Level Officers (BLOs).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Delhi, The Supreme Court on Tuesday remarked that the Election Commission of India (ECI) is correct in asserting that an Aadhaar card does not constitute conclusive proof of citizenship. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=178"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178\/revisions\/181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsaxis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}