Should voter ID be linked with Aadhaar to combat voter fraud?

Context: On December 29, 2024, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) accused each other of manipulating the Delhi electoral rolls to win
the Delhi Assembly elections, scheduled to be held in February. While the AAP
has accused the BJP of submitting applications to the Election Commission of
India (ECI) to get the names of voters removed from the list in its
strongholds, the BJP has claimed that the AAP government is aiding Rohingya immigrants
to settle in the capital so that it can secure their votes. According to the
Election Commission (EC), over 60% of India's 94.5 crore voters have linked
their Aadhaar number to their voter IDs.

Key points

·       Overview: The Election
Commission of India has asked the Union government to change the Representation
of the People Act, 1950, and voter registration forms. It wants to remove the
requirement for voters to give reasons if they choose not to link their Aadhaar
number with their voter ID card.

Representation
of People Act, 1950 - The 1950 Act provides for allocation of seats and
delimitation of constituencies for elections, qualifications of voters, preparation
of electoral rolls.

Representation
of People Act, 1951 - The 1951 Act regulates the actual conduct of
elections and by-elections. It provides for the conduct of elections and
offences and disputes related to elections.     It also deals with the registration of
political parties, the qualifications and disqualifications for membership of
the Houses.

·       Status
of Aadhaar Linking in India: Tripura has the highest rate of Aadhaar
linking, with over 92% of voters in the state providing their Aadhaar details
to the EC. Gujarat has the lowest Aadhaar registration by voters, with only
31.5% of voters linking the document to their voter registration.

·       Government’s
Push for the linking: Update Database - The linking project would
help the Election Commission, which conducts regular exercises to maintain an updated
and accurate record of the voter base.

Remove
Duplication - To weed out duplication of voters, such as migrant workers who may have
been registered more than once on the electoral rolls in different
constituencies or for persons registered multiple times within the same
constituency.

Pan India Voter
ID - As per the government, linkage of Aadhaar with voter IDs will assist in
ensuring that only one Voter ID is issued per citizen of India.

·       Issues
Related: Unclear Constitutional Status - In the Puttaswamy case (Right to
Privacy), one of the questions that the Supreme Court explored was whether the
mandatory linking of Aadhaar with bank accounts was constitutional or not.

Different
Purpose - The preference for Aadhaar for the purposes of determining voters is
puzzling as Aadhaar is only proof of residence and not proof of citizenship.

·       Conclusion: Along with
pursuing the Aadhaar-Voter ID integration, the government shall also look
forward to enacting the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill, 2022. The
DPDP regime must also apply to government entities and require them to obtain
an individual's explicit consent before sharing their data across various
government institutions.