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The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 was passed in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, 21 December, a day after the Lok Sabha gave its nod to the controversial bill.
The bill, which seeks to amend the Representation of the People Act, provides for the linking of voter IDs with Aadhaar on a voluntary basis, "for the purposes of authentication of entries in electoral roll."
Opposition members, who have contested the bill, have insisted that the legislation will infringe upon the privacy of the voters and potentially give voting privileges to non-citizens.
The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 proposes that the electoral registration officers can ask for the Aadhaar number of people trying to register as voters, in order to establish their identity.
The bill will also allow officers to ask for Aadhaar numbers from “persons already included in the electoral roll for the purposes of authentication of entries in the electoral roll, and to identify registration of the name of the same person in the electoral roll of more than one constituency or more than once in the same constituency."
The Opposition has contended that allowing the linkage of Aadhaar card to the voter ID would enable non-Indian citizens to cast votes in the elections.
Declaring his opposition to the bill, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor had said in the Lok Sabha on Monday:
Meanwhile, Leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had recommended for the bill to be sent to a Parliamentary Standing Committee.
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