NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Election Commission to consider Aadhaar as the 12th prescribed document for establishing the identity of a voter in the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise of electoral roll in poll-bound Bihar.
This means Aadhaar can be submitted as a standalone document, like any of the other 11 prescribed documents which electors have to submit with their enumeration forms.
The development comes amidst the ongoing tussle between the voters and ECI for registration of voters in the state.
Earlier, the ECI had prescribed 11 documents for inclusion of voters during the revision process in the state.
The two-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, also acknowledged the submissions of the ECI -- through its senior lawyer, Rakesh Dwivedi -- and clarified that the Aadhaar card is not a proof of citizenship.
Dwivedi submitted that Aadhaar cannot be accepted as a proof of citizenship.
The bench recorded an undertaking on behalf of the ECI, represented by senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi that Aadhaar card will be accepted as a proof of identity.
"The EC has the power to decide whether the applicant was a citizen. The EC has issued public advertisements in the media to give information to the voters about the Supreme Court's direction for the acceptance of Aadhaar," Dwivedi added.
After hearing these submissions, the top court added, keeping in view Section 23(4) of the Representation of People's Act, it is one of the documents for the purpose of establishing the identity of any person.
The court also ordered the EC to issue necessary instructions to the Booth Level Officers (BLO) to accept Aadhaar, and also made it clear that the officials would be entitled to verify its authenticity and genuineness.
For conducting this exercise, the bench asked the ECI to issue further directions to its officials present on the ground for the acceptance of Aadhaar as the proof of identity during the SIR process.
"In view of the statutory status assigned to Aadhaar under Aadhaar Act, it is not proof of citizenship. However, keeping in view Section 23(4) of RP Act, Aadhaar card is one document for the purpose of establishing the identity of any person," the bench said.
Following which, the bench recorded an undertaking on behalf of the ECI that Aadhaar card will be accepted as a proof of identity.
The top court was hearing a plea filed by various political parties like the Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD), AIMIM and other petitioners on the poll panel’s note where it has submitted that 99.5 per cent of the 7.24 crore electors in the draft electoral roll had filed their eligibility documents in the SIR exercise.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the RJD, argued that though the apex court issued three orders, the EC has yet not issued any instructions to its officials at the ground level to accept Aadhaar card.
"If they cannot accept that, what kind of inclusion exercise are they carrying out. They want to exclude the poor," Sibal alleged.
Dwivedi said that 99.6 per cent of the 7.24 crore voters in the draft roll had submitted documents and petitioners seeking inclusion of Aadhaar as 12th document would not serve any practical purpose.
One of the petitioners, advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay submitted that Aadhaar cannot be accepted if the person does not have any of the other 11 documents.
The top court is currently hearing a batch of pleas filed by NGO ADR, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Yogendra Yadav, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, RJD MP Manoj Jha, Congress leader K C Venugopal, and Mujahid Alam.
On August 22, the SC directed the EC to allow the 65 lakh excluded voters to submit their claims through online mode besides making physical submissions in Bihar SIR.
The petitioners from the top court sought a direction to set aside the ECI’s SIR order of 24, June, 2025.
"Issue a writ, order or direction setting aside Order and Communication dated 24.06.2025 and accompanying guidelines issued by ECI to conduct SIR of the electoral rolls in Bihar as being in violation of Articles 14, 19, 21, 325, 326 of the Constitution of India and provisions of Representation of People (RP) Act, 1950 and Registration of Electors Rules, 1960," said, the plea of ADR, filed in the top court.
The court also made all political parties in the batch of pleas challenging the SIR launched in Bihar on June 24.
On July 28, the Supreme Court in its order refused to stay the EC from publishing a draft voters list on August 1, 2025 after SIR exercise in Bihar. It also reiterated and asked the EC to complete the process in considering including Aadhaar and Voter ID cards for including their statutory correctness.
Earlier on July 10, the apex court's two-judge vacation bench, in its last order -- while refusing to stay the Bihar voter list revision -- asked the ECI to complete the process.
