Govt curtailing EC's independence by bringing Election Laws (Amendment) Bill: Owaisi

Following the government's introduction of the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill 2021 in the Lok Sabha, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday said that the Centre is curtailing the independence of the Election Commission by bringing the legislation.

Speaking to ANI, Owaisi said, "This Bill violates the Supreme Court judgment. Also, the government has no legislative competence. Linking voter Id with AADHAAR violates the fundamental right to privacy as defined by SC's Puduswami judgment. Making AADHAAR authentication mandatory also violates Supreme Court's judgment."

The AIMIM MP said that the House is not competent to enact a law that violates the fundamental rights of citizens.

"AADHAAR is not proof of Indian citizenship. Whether name on voters list is a completely different thing. Voter enrollment and issuance of voter Ids are carried out in pursuance of constitutional duty by a constitutional authority. Bringing this Bill, the government is interfering in the independence of the Election Commission. This will allow the government to disfranchise profile voters and discriminate between beneficiaries of various government schemes. It will end up violating the principles of the sacred ballot adult franchise also," he added.

As the Lower House of the Parliament resumed on Monday, the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021' was introduced by the government. Following this, the Opposition members started creating a ruckus and Lok Sabha has been adjourned till 2 pm.

"Aadhaar is only meant to be proof of residence. It is not proof of citizenship. If you are in a position asking Aadhaar for voters, all you are getting is a document that reflects residence, not citizenship. You are potentially giving the vote to non-citizens," Congress MP Shashi Tharoor told Lok Sabha.

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".

( With inputs from ANI )

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