EC must be named and shamed for brazen non-compliance with SC directive on Aadhaar: Cong

New Delhi: The Congress Monday said the Election Commission must be "named and shamed" for its "brazen non-compliance" with the Supreme Court's directive to accept Aadhaar as an identity proof and asserted that it was fighting an election "against the ruling regime, despite the EC".

The opposition party also said that history will not forgive Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the institution he heads.

Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said, "The Election Commission must be named and shamed for its brazen non-compliance with the Supreme Court's directive to accept Aadhaar as a proof of identity."

"Today, once again for the third time, the Supreme Court reiterated the point that Aadhaar must be accepted as a valid ID to register voters," he said on X.

The Congress leader alleged that repeated obstacles were being created by the Election Commission to deliberately inconvenience the registration of legitimate voters.

"It has refused to recognise BLAs (block level agents) appointed by political parties, declined to accept Aadhaar, and even sent notices to officials to only accept the documents it has prescribed," Ramesh alleged.

"Keep in mind that this is a mess of the Election Commission's own making. No one other than G2 asked for an SIR (special intensive revision) this close to the election. No one other than G2 asked for it to be conducted so ineptly that the Supreme Court has had to intervene to ensure basic checks and balances," the Congress leader said.

In the long social media post, Ramesh said, "Make no mistake, we are fighting an election against the ruling regime and despite the ECI. This CEC and the institution he heads shall not be forgiven by history."

The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Election Commission to include Aadhaar as a 12th prescribed document for establishing the identity of a voter in the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise of the electoral roll in poll-bound Bihar.

For Bihar SIR, there are 11 prescribed documents at the moment that electors have to submit with their enumeration forms.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, however, clarified that Aadhaar will not be a proof of citizenship, and the commission can ascertain the genuineness of the Aadhaar card number submitted by an elector for inclusion in the electoral roll.

Observing nobody wants the EC to include illegal immigrants in the electoral roll, the bench said it should be clear that only genuine citizens will be allowed to vote, and those claiming to be genuine on the basis of forged documents will be excluded from the electoral roll.

The bench asked the poll panel to issue necessary directions during the course of the day for the acceptance of Aadhaar as a document for proof of identity.