Hyderabad: A Supreme Court bench on Wednesday issued a notice to the Election Commission of India (ECI) regarding a plea filed by a Hyderabad-based activist against the ECI’s usage of software for voter ID-Aadhar linkage.
In his plea, Hyderabad-based Srinivas Kodali argued that the ECI is using undisclosed software for linking the voter ID with the Aadhar. The case dates back to 2018. While hearing the case, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said, “There are other matters right? We will issue a notice.”
The CJI further said that the court would wait for the ECI’s response in the case since it was essential to decide on the issue. It is to be noted that in 2015, the ECI launched the National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Program to link voter ID with Aadhar.
The program reportedly used software developed by the Unique Identification Authority of India(UIDAI) to help eliminate duplicate voter IDs. In August 2015, the Supreme Court put a stay on the initiative. It was still verifying the authority of the Aadhar.
Documents related to the program revealed that Aadhaar-related technology, particularly data-sorting algorithms, have permeated some of the most crucial aspects of civic life in India without any public discussion about its efficacy, or the risks involved. Rather than create transparency and accountability, UIDAI’s software has the opposite effect where senior government officers defer their judgement to software which they barely understand.
The initiative to link voter ID and Aadhar was first conducted in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in 2015, and the two states became testing grounds. Officials involved in the process admitted that the software may have affected the commission of 2.2 million voters from Telangana’s electoral rolls.
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