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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'Rear-guard action': BJP over Mamata accepting sports minister's resignation after Messi event
New Delhi (PTI): The BJP on Tuesday alleged that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's accepting Aroop Biswas' resignation as the state sports minister is nothing but a "rear-guard action" to douse public anger over the mismanagement of football icon Lionel Messi's event last week.
BJP co-in-charge for West Bengal Amit Malviya alleged that this is also an "open confession" that the Messi event fiasco was not accidental but a government-manufactured disaster, borne out of the poor governance of Banerjee, her ministers and the state bureaucracy.
Banerjee on Tuesday accepted Biswas' resignation as the sports minister in the wake of the controversy over the mismanagement of football icon Messi's event last week, a senior leader of the ruling TMC said.
Biswas, who had written to the chief minister seeking to be relieved of his responsibilities as sports minister, will continue as a cabinet minister, retaining charge of the power department.
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Reacting to the development, Malviya said in a post on X, "TMC Sports Minister Aroop Biswas resigns after the Messi fiasco and Mamata Banerjee accepts it in record time."
"Do not mistake this for accountability; this is nothing but a rear-guard action to douse public anger. anger! This is not 'Raj Dharma'," he added.
The BJP leader alleged that the incident was the outcome of "loot" of common people which is "so synonymous" with the TMC.
The incident was also the outcome of the "shameless VIP culture that TMC thrives on and deep-rooted cronyism promoted by Banerjee," he charged.
Malviya further alleged that Biswas' resignation exposes a "collective failure of Mamata Banerjee, her partisan bureaucracy, and her crony cabinet".
"This is a symbolic sacrifice, a political hoax, soon to be buried under layers of bureaucracy, with no justice, no accountability, and no remorse," the BJP leader said, adding, "No resignation will bring back the time lost, the money wasted, or the stolen chance for football lovers to witness Messi in Kolkata."
