Aadhar, voter ID no actual proof of citizenship: Supreme Court
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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that possession of an Aadhaar card or a voter ID is not actual proof of citizenship in the SIR exercise, agreeing with the Election Commission of India. The court also asked for more documents to prove the same, Deccan Herald reported.
The court was hearing a batch of pleas against the Election Commission’s electoral roll revision- Special Intensive Revision- in Bihar.
The court also refused to take the argument that people are finding it difficult to find their birth certificates or other documents of their parents.
"It is a very sweeping statement that in Bihar, nobody has the documents. If this happens in Bihar, then what will happen in other parts of the country?" Deccan Herald quoted the bench.
The court then called the row over SIR ‘largely a trust deficit issue’. The court said so after noting EC’s claim that 6.5 crore people of the total 7.9 crore voting population didn't have to file any documents because they or their parents featured in the 2003 electoral roll.
According to the top court, if out of 7.24 crore voters out of 7.9 crore responded to SIR, the theory of one crore voters missing or disenfranchised is false.
The Bombay High Court ruled on Tuesday that a person does not become a citizen of India merely by possessing documents like an Aadhaar card, a PAN card or a voter ID. The court said so, refusing bail to a man, allegedly from Bangladesh, for entering India illegally, PTI reported.
The man is accused of staying in India for more than a decade with forged and fabricated documents.
A bench of Justice Amit Borkar said provisions of the Citizenship Act lay down who can be a citizen of India and how citizenship can be acquired, and documents such as the Aadhaar card, PAN card and voter ID are only meant for identification or availing services.
