Linking of Aadhaar and electoral ID is voluntary
- Terming the exercise to link Aadhaar with election photo identity card (EPIC) as ‘voluntary,’ Law Minister told the Lok Sabha that people who don’t link their Aadhaar with EPIC will not be struck off from the voters’ list.
Highlights
- The Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021, allows electoral registration officers to require the existing or prospective elector to provide the Aadhaar number for the purpose of establishing identity on a voluntary basis.
- More than 54 crore of the nearly 95 crore total voters have opted to link their Aadhaar details with voter ID.
- “The Election Commission does not store the Aadhaar numbers in its database.
- The Aadhaar number is used only for authentication and EC does not retrieve any personal information from the UIDAI Aadhaar database.
Prelims Take Away
- Elections
- Right to Vote
- Election Commission
- UIDAI
- Aadhaar Cards