NEW DELHI, June 16: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought responses from the Centre, States and Union Territories on a plea seeking directions to restrict the use of Aadhaar strictly as proof of identity and not as proof of citizenship, domicile, address or date of birth.
A Bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice V. Mohana issued notices on the petition filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay and tagged it with similar pending matters.
The plea has sought directions to the Centre, State Governments and the Election Commission to ensure that Aadhaar is used only for identity verification and not for establishing citizenship, domicile or residential status.
Filed through advocate Ashwani Dubey, the petition also challenged the use of Aadhaar as proof of date of birth and residence in applications for new voter registration, contending that it is contrary to provisions of the Aadhaar Act, 2016, the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and Article 14 of the Constitution.
The petition pointed out that Section 9 of the Aadhaar Act explicitly states that Aadhaar is not evidence of citizenship or domicile. It further referred to a notification issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on August 22, 2023, clarifying that Aadhaar serves only as proof of identity and not of citizenship, address or date of birth.
Despite these provisions, the plea alleged that Aadhaar is being widely accepted for school admissions, property transactions, birth certificates, ration cards, driving licences and voter registration, enabling illegal immigrants and infiltrators to obtain various official documents.
The petition also questioned the adequacy of the existing verification mechanism under Form-6 for voter enrolment and sought a comprehensive review of the electoral verification framework. It proposed the constitution of a high-powered monitoring committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge and comprising cybersecurity and forensic experts to oversee reforms. (Agencies)
