NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court of India is scheduled to hear on Monday a plea seeking directions to the Election Commission of India to implement finger and iris biometric identification systems at polling stations in impending Assembly elections to curb electoral malpractices.
The plea has been filed by Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and lawyer, seeking measures to prevent bribery, undue influence, personation, duplicate voting, ghost voting and other such alleged election malpractices.
A Bench of the apex court, headed by the Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, is slated to hear the plea on April 13.
The petitioner said that the injury to citizens was extremely large, as bribery, undue influence, personation, duplicate voting and ghost voting still affect the purity and integrity of the electoral process.
"Therefore, to uphold the constitutional mandate of free and fair elections, the Election Commission of India may consider implementing Finger and Iris Biometric Authentication at polling booths in impending Assembly Elections. This may be implemented on the lines similar to the Aadhaar-Based Identification which has been recognised as a valid proof of identity under Section 23(4) of the RPA, 1950. The ECI has plenary power to implement the Biometric Authentication," the plea of the petitioner, Upadhyay, added.
The adoption of finger-iris biometric verification at polling booths in impending Assembly elections would ensure that only genuine and duly registered electors are permitted to cast their votes, thereby effectively preventing bribery, undue influence, personation, duplicate and ghost voting, the petition said.
"The ECI by using its plenary power under Article 324 may implement Finger and Iris based Biometric Authentication to strengthen voter identification and eliminate Bribery, Undue Influence, Personation, Duplicate and Ghost Voting. Biometric Identifiers are unique and incapable of being fabricated, thereby ensuring the principle of 'One Citizen, One Vote' in its truest sense. This would guarantee that each registered elector casts only a single vote," the plea stated.
He further contended that a transparent electoral process is essential for maintaining trust in democratic institutions. The introduction of finger-iris biometric verification would remove ambiguity in identification and provide an objective, tamper-proof mechanism, thereby enhancing public faith in the fairness of elections.
"A biometric-based authentication inherently provides a mechanism for creating secure and verifiable digital records of voter authentication at the time of voting. Such records, while maintaining voter secrecy, can serve as an audit trail to verify that due process was followed at each polling station. This enhances institutional accountability and enables ECI to conduct post-election audits more efficiently and reliably. Existence of verifiable data also serves as a deterrent to malpractice, as any irregularity in the process can be traced and examined," the plea highlighted.
He further stressed that if these processes were put in place, the ability to audit and verify the process would strengthen transparency and reassure stakeholders that the electoral system is both robust and accountable.
"Strengthening the Integrity of Electoral Process: Free and fair elections form part of the basic structure of the Constitution. Any gap in identity verification directly impacts the legitimacy of the electoral outcome. By introducing biometric validation, ECI can significantly strengthen the integrity and accuracy of the election process," the plea pointed out.