Union Cabinet approves bill allowing voluntary linking of Aadhaar to voter ID cards

Dec. 15: In a significant development, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a bill on electoral reforms, allowing linking of Aadhaar to voter ID cards. Just like PAN-Aadhaar linking, seeding of the Aadhaar card with one’s voter ID or electoral card will now be allowed. However, unlike the former, this is being done on a voluntary basis.

The linking of Aadhar with Voter ID is one one of the key reforms pushed by the Election Commission of India (ECI). The bill will also allow those exercising their franchise for the first time to get as many as four turns to register in a year. At present, those turning 18 on or before January 1 of every year are only allowed to register as voters once.

An army man’s wife is entitled to be enrolled as a service voter, but a woman army officer’s husband is not, according to the existing provisions. The ECI had asked the law ministry to replace the term ‘wife’ with ‘spouse’ in the provision in the Representation of the People Act related to service voters.

Another proposal in the reforms will allow the Election Commission to take over any premise for the conduct of elections overruling objections to taking over schools as polling booths. The government will introduce these key electoral reforms in the present winter session of the parliament.