New form rolled out for voters to share Aadhaar with poll authorities

New Delhi: The government has amended the Registration of Electors Rules to allow linking Aadhaar details with voters list to weed out duplicate entries and making election law gender neutral for service voters. The Legislative Department in the Union Law Ministry issued notifications on Friday night announcing that the rules have been amended in line with the provisions of the Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021 passed by Parliament in December last year.

The Registration of Electors (Amendment) Rules, 2022 will come into force on August 1.

A separate notification said people already enrolled in the voters list should intimate his or her Aadhaar number on or before April 1, 2023 to the officers concerned. "In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (5) of section 23 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 (43 of 1950), the Central Government hereby notifies the 1st April, 2023 as the date on or before which every person whose name is included in the electoral roll may intimate his Aadhaar number in accordance with the said section," read the notification.

The Election Laws (Amendment) Act seeks to allow electoral registration officers to seek Aadhaar number of people who want to register as voters "for the purpose of establishing the identity".

It also seeks to allow the electoral registration officers to ask for Aadhaar numbers from "persons already included in the electoral roll for the purposes of authentication of entries in the electoral roll,

and to identify registration

of the name of the same person in the electoral roll of more than one constituency or more than once in the same constituency".

At the same time, the bill as passed by Parliament makes it clear that "no application for inclusion of name in the electoral roll shall be denied and no entries in the electoral roll shall be deleted for the inability of an individual to furnish or intimate Aadhaar number due to such sufficient cause as may be prescribed".

A new form "6B" has been introduced to allow existing voters share their Aadhaar number. Those who do not have Aadhaar card, have an option of sharing other proofs such as MNREGA job card, health insurance smart card issued under the scheme of Ministry of Labour, driving license and PAN card.

Those not submitting Aadhaar number have to tick the box which says: "I am not able to furnish my Aadhaar Number because I don't have Aadhaar number. Therefore, I hereby submit a copy of one of the following documents ..."