Aadhaar not proof of Citizenship in voter roll case: Supreme Court upholds EC stand
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has backed the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) position that Aadhaar cannot be treated as conclusive proof of citizenship, emphasising that it must be independently verified.
A bench led by Justice Surya Kant made the remarks while hearing petitions challenging the Special Summary Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar. “The EC is correct in saying Aadhaar cannot be accepted as conclusive proof of citizenship. It has to be verified,” Justice Kant told senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who appeared for the petitioners.
The court said the first question was whether the ECI had the legal power to conduct such verification. “If they don’t have the power, everything ends. But if they have the power, there can’t be a problem,” the bench observed.
Sibal argued that the verification process would lead to large-scale exclusion, including voters listed since 2003 who were now being asked to submit fresh forms. Failure to do so, he claimed, would result in deletion of names without changes in residence being verified.
According to him, 7.24 crore forms were submitted, yet about 65 lakh names were removed without proper inquiry into deaths or migration. The petitioners also alleged that the EC had not disclosed the list of excluded voters in public, sharing limited information only with booth-level agents.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan contended that the commission’s actions lacked transparency. The bench, meanwhile, said that if a voter submitted Aadhaar and ration card, the EC was duty-bound to verify the details and ensure those missing documents were duly notified.
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Rickelton's ton in vain as SRH beat MI by 6 wickets
Mumbai (PTI): Ryan Rickelton's whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Heinrich Klaasen's unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH.
Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.
Earlier, Rickelton's knock powered MI to 243 for five.
MI rode on a 93-run stand between Rickelton (123 not out off 55 balls) and Will Jacks (46 off 22) in 7.1 overs for the opening stand to power the side.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya scored a valuable 31 off 15 balls before being dismissed.
Praful Hinge (2/54), Eshan Malinga (1/29), Sakib Hasan (1/39) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/31) were the wicket-takers for SRH.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indian: 243 for 5 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 123 not out; Praful Hinge 2/54).
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 249 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Travis Head 76, Heinrich Klaasen 65 not out; AM Ghazanfar 2/51).
