The West Bengal State Election Commission has made a major change in the rules for registering new voters. From now on, names will no longer be registered offline. Names will have to be registered online only. Also, from now on, Aadhaar card is mandatory for registering new voters. The new rules have been implemented during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) or electoral rolls.

After SIR is completed, the draft voter list of the state will be published on December 9. Then, new voters can register their names by filling Form-6. Applications can be made till January 8. The Commission has stated that ‘e-signature’ is mandatory for registering new voters. Which means, registration will have to be done through Aadhaar card with OTP. Therefore, Aadhaar card becomes mandatory for registering new voters.

However, Aadhaar is not the only document. Several other documents will have to be provided for registering names on the voter card like it was needed earlier. To apply, new voters will have to provide the names of their parents or grandparents who are in the 2002 voter list. It is to be noted that, just two days ago, the Supreme Court had said that Aadhaar card cannot be a proof of citizenship in any way. Following the SC order, the state Commission is implementing this change.

Aadhaar is not proof of citizenship: Supreme Court

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court of India made several significant observations regarding the use of Aadhaar, primarily emphasising that Aadhaar is not proof of citizenship and questioning its role in the electoral process. The court also suggested using Aadhaar for age verification for online content deemed obscene.

While hearing a batch of petitions challenging the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, a bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant reiterated that the Aadhaar Act explicitly states that Aadhaar does not confer citizenship or domicile. The court expressed concern that an “outsider” or non-citizen who has obtained an Aadhaar card for welfare benefits might be incorrectly included in voter lists.

Commission focusing on excluding names of deceased voters

Meanwhile, the state Election Commission sources revealed that while preparing the draft voter list, the issue of excluding the names of deceased voters is being given utmost importance. For this, the Commission has decided to send the list of names of deceased voters to all the Electoral Reform Groups (ERGs) of the state. According to that list, a name list of the deceased voters of that booth will be displayed in every booth. Despite this, if any name from the list of deceased voters is found in the draft list, the person will be called for a hearing. The Commission said that the list of names of deceased voters is coming to the Commission from various sources including Aadhaar card authorities, crematoriums, post offices, banks. That list will be sent to the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) for scrutiny.

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