Govt Curtailing EC’s Independence By Bringing Election Laws (Amendment)Bill: Owaisi
Mumbai: After the government introduced the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill 2021 in the Lok Sabha, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday said the Center was curtailing the independence of the Election Commission by bringing in the law.
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 make 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 Parliament resumed on Monday, the ‘Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021’ was introduced by the government. After this, the opposition members started creating ruckus and the Lok Sabha was adjourned till 2 pm.
The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 aims to allow voter registration officers to obtain Aadhaar numbers of people who wish to register as voters “for the purpose of establishing 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 ANI Inputs)
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