Petition to link Aadhaar to movable and immovable property documents: Delhi HC issues notice to Central and Delhi governments

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]HE Delhi High Court has issued notice to the Central and Delhi Government in a petition seeking a direction to link Aadhaar with movable and immovable property documents. It also asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) to decide within eight weeks whether an Aadhar based voting system can be implemented.

Two separate petitions were filed by advocate and Bhartiya Janata Party leader Ashwini Upadhyay, seeking the following directions:

  1. To link Aadhaar with movable and immovable property documents as steps to curb corruption and black money, and
  2. To implement an Aadhaar-based election voting system where fingerprint and face biometrics would be used in casting votes

A two-judge bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar disposed-of the petition seeking the implementation of an Aadhaar-based election voting system to ensure maximum participation of citizens in the elections and to curtail “fake, fabricated and duplicated votes”, after asking the ECI to decide the matter in accordance with the law within eight weeks.

Upadhyay in his petition argued that “authentication of voters, security of the voting process and protecting the voted data — these are the main challenges of current election voting. That is why it is necessary to generate a secure voting system”.

With regard to linking Aadhaar with the movable and immovable property documents, the court, while issuing notice to the Central and Delhi Government directed them to file counter affidavits and listed the matter for further hearing on October 15, 2019.