The Election Commission of India defends its Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, stating it enhances election purity by removing ineligible voters. The commission addresses concerns about Aadhaar usage, emphasizing its limited role in identity verification during the SIR-2025 exercise.
It is voluntary to link Aadhaar with a voter ID and consent is obtained from the elector for Aadhaar authentication in Form 6B which was recently introduced, he said.
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Pandey is a Maharashtra cadre IAS officer of 1984 batch.
The deadline of March 31 has been postponed till the apex court delivers its final judgment.
The Supreme Court has dismissed a batch of pleas seeking review of its 2018 verdict upholding the Centre's flagship Aadhaar scheme as constitutionally valid but striking down some of its provisions, including its linking with bank accounts, mobile phones and school admissions.
The Bill could be introduced in Lok Sabha very soon.
Senior advocate Indira Jaising said the review petition has been filed against the September 26 verdict of the five-judge constitution bench which had said there was nothing in the Aadhaar Act that violated right to privacy of an individual.
The government would have to assure the Supreme Court that collection of biometric data under Aadhaar does not violate privacy.
'This updated NPR database along with Aadhaar Number would become the mother database and can be used by various government departments...' the home ministry declared in July 2015. 'UID/Aadhaar has been used as a fish bait to ensnare and entrap present and future generations of citizens,' warns Gopal Krishna.
However, ration card, driving licence, voter identity card, Kisan passbook with photo, job card issued under MGNREGS and a certificate issued by a gazetted officer or a tehsildar will be admissible as proof of identity for people to get the benefits under the scheme till the time they get Aadhaar.
Sibal said the party will certainly move the court if amendments in the Aadhaar Act to be brought after this verdict are not brought in Rajya Sabha for discussion.
The judgment was reserved after a marathon hearing which went on for 38 days spanning four months.
A key argument against the Aadhaar scheme was that it was violative of the nine-judge bench verdict that had held that Right to Privacy is a fundamental right under the Constitution.
Various twists and turns by govt post-demonetisation prove that it has been tall order for the PM
The UIDAI, set up in 2009, will manage the generation and authentication of Aadhaar numbers.
'The attempt to make Aadhaar mandatory has now emerged as an act of bullying by government agencies, turning citizens into subjects by making fundamental rights conditional on biometric identification,' says Gopal Krishna.
Private firms' offer to print Aadhaar details on plastic card a breach of law
The Modi government could steer through Parliament 59 out of 75 Bills.
Rejecting Rajya Sabha's five amendments and opposition's appeal not to make "haste", the Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the legislation that aims at better targeting of subsidies through the Aadhaar unique identity number within hours of the Upper Housing returning it.
The Bill neither plans to make the Aadhar mandatory or limit its issuance to citizens.
Aadhaar-related schemes and the Aadhaar Act exist on the assumption that Right to Privacy is not a Fundamental Right.
The Aadhaar Bill passed during Budget session last month, overruling amendments moved in Rajya Sabha.
The apex court's five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said Aadhaar is meant to help benefits reach the marginalised sections of the society and takes into account the dignity of people not only from personal but also from community point of view.
It emerges that not only does the CIDR project fails the test of fairness, justness and reasonableness besides the test of not being fanciful, oppressive or arbitrary; it also fails the test of Arthashastra, Hadith and the Bible.
The DoT is wrongly asking subscribers to link their mobile numbers to Aadhaar in order to keep them active, says Gopal Krishna.
The linking of biometric UID/Aadhaar number to all public services makes "We, the People of India" worse than slaves, says Gopal Krishna.
The plan of UID/Aadhaar-based surveillance does not end with the collection of fingerprints and iris scan, it goes quite beyond it and poses a lethal threat to the idea of India, says Gopal Krishna.
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