NEW DELHI: Congress on Monday slammed the Election Commission for its non-complaince with the Supreme Court’s directive to accept Aadhar as a proof of identity and said that repeated obstacles are being created by the it to deliberately inconvenience the registration of legitimate voters and it is its own mess.
In a post on X, Congress General Secretary and Communication incharge Jairam Ramesh said, "The Election Commission must be named and shamed for its brazen non-compliance with the Supreme Court's directive to accept Aadhar as a proof of identity."
Coming down heavily on the poll panel, Ramesh said that today, once again for the third time, "the Supreme Court reiterated the point that Aadhar must be accepted as a valid ID to register voters".
"Repeated obstacles are being created by the Election Commission to deliberately inconvenience the registration of legitimate voters. It has refused to recognise BLAs appointed by political parties, declined to accept Aadhar, and even sent notices to officials to only accept the documents it has prescribed," the Congress leader said.
Slamming the Commission, Ramesh said, "Keep in mind that this is a mess of the Election Commission's own making. No one other than G2 asked for an SIR this close to the election. No one other than G2 asked for it to be conducted so ineptly that the Supreme Court has had to intervene to ensure basic checks and balances."
"Make no mistake, we are fighting an election against the ruling regime and despite the ECI. This CEC and the institution he heads shall not be forgiven by history," he added.
His remarks came after the Supreme Court on Monday clarified that Aadhaar cards shall be accepted as one of the documents for establishing identity for the purpose of inclusion or exclusion in the revised electoral rolls.
The court ordered that Aadhaar be treated as the 12th document in the list of acceptable identity proofs under the voter registration framework.
This inclusion aligns with provisions under the Representation of the People Act, 1950, which allow for various documents to be used in establishing the identity of voters.
The top the court also drew a clear legal distinction between identity and citizenship, as it emphasised that while Aadhaar can help establish identity, it cannot be used as proof of Indian citizenship.
