Current Affairs 2022: Important Provisions of Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021

By Ankita Rawat

Recently Government introduced an amendment in the Laws related to the conduct of elections in India. The law envisaged linking the Adhaar Number with the EPIC number. Read here in detail about the provisions of the bill.

On December 20, 2021, the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill 2021 was introduced in the Lok Sabha to amend the Representation of the People Act 1951 and the Representation of the People Act 1950 to enforce certain electoral reforms.  The Representation of the People Act 1950 provides the delimitation of constituencies for qualifications of voters, elections, preparation of electoral rolls, and the allocation of seats.  On the other hand, the Representation of the People Act 1951 provides the conduct of elections for the Houses of the Legislature of each state and the Houses of Parliament, and it also provides the resolution of disputes associated with elections.

The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 aims to link electoral roll data with the Aadhaar ecosystem via a voice vote. The Law Minister Kiren Rijiju introduced the Bill and further it was passed after a concise discussion during which a few opposition members petitioned that it must be referred to a parliamentary panel. According to Rijiju, various proposals that are part of the bill are already suggested and recommended by the Standing Committee

Significant Features of the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021

1 De-Duplication of Electoral Roll- It will enable the amendment of Section 23 of the Representation of People’s Act, 1950 that will facilitate the linking of electoral roll data with the Aadhaar ecosystem. This will help in reducing the risk of multiple enrolments of the same person in different places, stop the false voting and fraud votes. This linking is in agreement with 105^th report of the Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public, Personal  Grievances, and Law & Justice.

2. Multiple Qualifying Dates- Currently, the voting right of citizens is 18 years, many of them are left out because the qualifying date in the system is 1st January. According to the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, now four qualifying dates will be declared for updating voting rolls for those who turned  18 on the first day of the months including Jan, April, July & Oct.

3. Bringing Gender Neutrality- Now the terminology for registration of ‘wives of service voters’ will get replaced with ‘spouse’, which makes it more gender-neutral. The Service Voters are personnel from the armed police force,  armed force serving outside the state and the government employees who are posted outside India.

Further, the associated concerns with Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 includes-

1. Aadhaar is not Mandatory- Aadhaar Card Scheme is purely voluntary, also it is only used as proof of residence,  not as a proof of citizenship.

2. Fear of Mass Disenfranchisement- After implementation of the Bill, the electoral registration officers can ask for the Aadhaar numbers of applicants needed to register as voters to set up the identity of the applicants. If the Aadhaar is not available, the government can use the voter identity information for disenfranchising some people and profile the citizens.

3. No Data Protection Law-  The absence of vigorous personal data protection law may allow sharing of data which can prove to be troublesome.

4. Privacy Concerns- Election Commission of India held the electoral data in its database, separated from other government databases and has its verification process. The linkage between the election database and Aadhaar make data available to the UIDAI and ECImay leading to the infringement of the privacy of citizens.

Further, the opposition claimed that provisions of the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 violate the Supreme Court’s 2015 judgement that restricts the use of Aadhaar for welfare and financial benefits,  they also stated that the top court has forbidden unnecessary expansion of the scope of Aadhaar to other aspects of the life.

Also, they alleged that it may be used for profiling voters and mentioned the example of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to strengthen the claim.

In 2018, when the voter ID cards were linked with the Aadhaar database in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, nearly 55 lakh voters were missing from the electoral rolls forcing the government to call back the decision.

Also, the government stated that suggested linkage between the election database and Aadhaar is completely voluntary. Additionally, the incorporation of name in the electoral roll will be dismissed and no entries in the electoral roll will be discarded for the incompetence of an individual to deliver or confidential Aadhaar number.

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About the Author

  Ankita Rawat is doing graduation in BA(JMC) from JIMS Vasant Kunj, New Delhi.