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Polity & Governance
Mahesh

29/08/22 21:04 PM IST

Aadhaar- Voter ID linkage

In News 
  • Reports have surfaced online of instances where block level officers have asked individuals to link their Aadhaar with their Voter IDs, failing which their Voter IDs could be cancelled.
Why Aadhaar- Voter ID linkage? 
  • The EC conducts regular exercises to maintain an updated and accurate record of the voter base.
  • A part of this exercise is to weed out duplication of voters.
  • There have been migrant workers who may have been registered more than once on the electoral rolls in different constituencies or for persons registered multiple times within the same constituency.
  • As per the government, linkage of Aadhaar with voter IDs will assist in ensuring that only one Voter ID is issued per citizen of India.
Concerns 
  • The Court held that depriving a person of their right to property for non-linkage fell foul of the test of proportionality.
  • Lal Babu Hussein (1995): The Supreme Court held that the Right to vote cannot be disallowed by insisting only on four proofs of identity — voters can rely on any other proof of identity and obtain the right to vote.
Challenges 
  • The preference for Aadhaar to determine voters is puzzling as Aadhaar is only a proof of residence and not a proof of citizenship.
  • Errors in biometrics: The estimate of error rates in biometric-based authentication differ widely.
  • As per the UIDAI in 2018, Aadhaar-based biometric authentication had a 12% error rate.
  • Violation of the right to privacy and surveillance measures by the state: Linking of the two databases of electoral rolls and Aadhaar could lead to the linkage of Aadhaar’s “demographic” information with voter ID information.
Way Forward 
  • Even as the amendments have been made and the EC has launched a campaign for linkage, a writ petition has filed with the Supreme Court challenging the same.
  • It challenges the amendments as being violative of the right to privacy.
  • The Supreme Court has transferred the writ to the Delhi High Court.
  • In the meantime, it is important that the government clarifies through a correction in Form 6B that the linking is not mandatory.
  • The govt should expedite the enactment of a data protection legislation that allays concerns of unauthorized processing of personal data held by the government.
Source- The Hindu 

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