Aadhaar: The Accidental Citizenship Card? Supreme Court Hits 'Verify'
For years, the Aadhaar card has been the Swiss Army knife of Indian bureaucracy—it gets you a SIM card, a bank account, and your gas subsidy. But it seems some may have mistaken it for the golden ticket to the ballot box itself. The Supreme Court is now playing the role of the stern bouncer, asking the Election Commission if it's been letting people into the democratic nightclub just because they flashed a residency ID. It’s a spectacular own-goal if a system meant to verify identity has inadvertently created a backdoor to the very definition of the electorate, turning a proof of 'being here' into a proof of 'belonging here'.
Beneath the witty surface lies a serious constitutional conundrum. The petitioner’s plea alleges that in states like Assam and West Bengal, Aadhaar cards are being improperly used to enroll non-citizens onto electoral rolls. Legally, the distinction is crystal clear: the Aadhaar Act of 2016 explicitly states the card is not proof of citizenship, merely of residence. Voting rights, however, are governed by the Representation of the People Act, which reserves the franchise exclusively for Indian citizens. The Supreme Court’s pointed question forces authorities to confront a critical gap in administrative procedure: how is the Election Commission verifying citizenship beyond the presentation of an Aadhaar card, and is this ubiquitous ID creating a loophole that undermines the sanctity of the electoral process?
