Winter session: Asaduddin Owaisi moves notice in LS to oppose Election Laws (Amendment) Bill 2021

Asaduddin Owaisi. Pic/AFP

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has submitted a notice in Lok Sabha "to oppose Election Laws (Amendment) Bill 2021 which proposes to link Aadhaar to electoral roll enrolment."

In his letter to the Secretary-General Lok Sabha, Owaisi said, "The Bill is outside the legislative competence of the House as it violates the limits on legislation set by the Supreme Court in its judgment. The linking of voter IDs and AADHAAR violates the fundamental right to privacy as defined by Supreme Court in its judgment. The House is not competent to enact a law that violates the fundamental rights of citizens."

The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 is intended to allow electoral registration officers to seek Aadhaar number of people who wish to register as voters "for the purpose of establishing the identity".

The Bill also seeks to allow the electoral registration officers to get Aadhaar numbers from "persons already included in the electoral roll for the purposes of authentication of entries in the electoral roll, and to identify registration of the name of the same person in the electoral roll of more than one constituency or more than once in the same constituency".