Aadhar Card Linking or Aadhar Seeding to the Voter ID card has now been suspended by the Election Commission of India following Supreme Court’s latest directions.

How is Voting Card Different from Aadhar Card in India to Know- CLICK HERE.

Election Commission of India Suspends Aadhar Card Seeding:

Here’s, everything you need to know about the suspension of the linkage and the new Supreme Court direction.

You can also read – Can you vote using Aadhar Card?

What is Supreme Court’s Latest Direction on Aadhar Card Seeding?

Supreme Court’s latest direction owing to which the Aadhar Card Seeding got suspended states that Aadhar Card cannot be made mandatory for availing any benefit due to a citizen. The Supreme Court has issued strict instructions to the CEO of all states regarding this new direction.

Complete New Directions Of the Supreme Court:

The Supreme Court, last year, once again made it clear that it is not mandatory for a citizen to have an Aadhar Card to avail any benefits which are otherwise due to a citizen. The Supreme Court has also directed the Government to give wide publicity in the electronic and print media including radio and television Networks that it is not mandatory to have an Aadhar Card.

Lately, the Supreme Court had been dealing with a number of petitions which were against the push by the government to make Aadhar Card Mandatory and its increased use to avail the benefits of various schemes launched by the Government. The Bench of Supreme Court might have considered the ‘Right to Privacy’ as a fundamental right, the larger bench made it clear that it is not mandatory to have an Aadhar Card. Aadhar will not be used for any other schemes except the LPG or PDS

Here’s a screenshot of the direction:-

Election Commission of India’s NERPAP (National Electoral Rolls Purification and Authentication Program)

In February 2015, the Election Commission of India launched the NERPAP which was the National Electoral Rolls Purification and Authentication Program, it was started with the backdrop of duplicate names, multiple entries, repeating images and repeating Voter ID card number. The major objective of this initiative of the Election Commission of India was to link and authenticate the Voter ID card date of the voters (EPIC) to the Aadhar Card (UIDAI).

From the beginning of this program, the Election Commission of India made it very clear it is not mandatory to link your Aadhar to your Voter ID Card and non-furnishing of the Aadhar will not lead to deletion of names from the electoral rolls. Despite this CEO’s of many states excessively publicized it and people got an impression that linking of the Aadhar is mandatory and not linking Aadhar card will lead to deletion of names.

Now, with the Supreme Court orders, the Election Commission of India has issued directions to all the CEO’s to completely suspend the Aadhar Card seeding with Voter ID card. The directions stated that all the linking activity stands suspended and no more Aadhar Card numbers will be collected from the electors by any election authority. The removal of all the material from the websites of Aadhar Seeding, withdrawal of all publicity events regarding the Aadhar Seeding as well as issuing new publicity regarding this specific order of the Election Commission of India.

Hence, there will be no more linking of Aadhar Card to the Voter ID Card, the highest authorities of the land that is the Supreme Court of India alongwith the Election Commission of India has deemed it “not necessary to link Aadhar to Voter ID Card”.