The Union Law Ministry responded positively to a request from the Election Commission seeking legal powers to resume linking of voter cards with Aadhaar numbers but asked the EC to “enumerate” the safeguards in place to prevent “theft, interception and hijacking” of data, The Indian Express has learnt. The poll watchdog argued that seeding of voter cards with Aadhaar would help weed out duplicate entries and bogus voters, and hence, serve national interest. However, the amendment also states that no one will be denied enrollment or deleted from the voters’ list for inability to furnish Aadhaar numbers. The poll panel had already linked 38 crore voter cards to Aadhaar by then. This prompted the EC’s demand for legal powers to resume seeding of voter cards with Aadhaar.

Source: Indian Express January 23, 2020 23:13 UTC