The Supreme Court will hear on Monday a petition challenging a law that allows linking electoral roll data with Aadhaar, reported NDTV.
The Union government notified the law under the Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021, on June 17. The law allows electoral registration officers to seek Aadhaar numbers of citizens who want to register as voters to establish their identity.
The petition has been filed by Congress spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Singh Surjewala. The law is unconstitutional and violates the rights to privacy and equality, he has said.
The government has maintained that sharing Aadhaar details will be voluntary. However, several activists have expressed concerns that the linking of two documents can compromise privacy of citizens’ data.
In March 2015, the Election Commission launched a countrywide project to link Aadhaar and voter ID cards. The project was stopped after a Supreme Court judgement in October 2015 that limited the purposes for which…