Breaking: SC Refuses To Entertain Randeep Surjewala's Plea Against Linking Aadhaar To Electoral Roll, Asks Him To Approach HC

The Supreme Court has refused to entertain Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala's plea challenging the Election Law Amendment Act that enables linking electoral roll data with the Aadhaar.

The Bench comprising of Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice A S Bopanna observed, "Why don't you approach the High Court?".  "The High Court is also competent to hear the matter", Justice Chandrachud observed.

The Court passed an order stating that the Petitioner has an efficacious remedy available before the High Court and dismissed the petition with liberty to approach the High Court.

The Congress leader, in his plea, submitted that the linking of the cards infringes upon the fundamental right of privacy of citizens and is unconstitutional and ultra vires the Constitution.

Linking of Aadhaar data with Electronic Electoral Photo Identity Card data will allow the personal and private data of voters to be available to a statutory authority and shall impose a limitation on the voters, i.e., the voters will now have to establish their identity before the Electoral Registration Officer (Respondent No. 2) by furnishing their respective Aadhaar details.

The situation will further be aggravated by the fact that at present there are no laws for protecting the data of citizens, the plea said.

Surjewala has claimed that the amendment may even enable voter profiling as all the demographic information linked to Aadhaar shall be linked with the Voter ID. As per the petition, this can, in theory, also increase the possibility of disenfranchisement/intimidation based on the identity of voters.

"This may even increase chances of voter surveillance and the commercial exploitation of private sensitive data of voters", the plea said.