NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Election Commission of India (ECI), Centre and states on a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking implementation of fingerprint and iris-based biometric identification at polling stations to prevent electoral malpractices such as duplicate voting, impersonation, and ghost voting.
"However, whether such a recourse deserves to be followed before the next parliamentary election and/or state assembly elections needs to be examined. Issue notice," the Bench said.
The plea, filed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, was heard by a bench headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi.
The plea said that "the injury to citizens was extremely large as bribery, undue influence, personation, duplicate voting, and ghost voting still affects 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 submitted.
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... 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.
The petitioner 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 highlited.
The petitioner 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, accuracy ability of election process," the plea pointed out.