On December 29, 2021, the Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021 received the assent of the President to amend the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
Key Amendment:
- In section 23 of the 1950 Act, the following sub-sections shall be inserted, namely:—
(4) The electoral registration officer may for the purpose of establishing the identity of any person require that such person may furnish the Aadhaar number given by the Unique Identification Authority of India as per the provisions of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016:
Provided that the electoral registration officer may also require the Aadhaar number from persons already included in the electoral roll for the purposes of authentication of entries in electoral roll and to identify registration of name of the same person in the electoral roll of more than one constituency or more than once in the same constituency.
(5) Every person whose name is included in the electoral roll may intimate his Aadhaar number to such authority in such form and manner as may be prescribed, on or before a date to be notified by the Central Government in the Official Gazette.
(6) No application for inclusion of name in the electoral roll shall be denied and no entries in the electoral roll shall be deleted for inability of an individual to furnish or intimate Aadhaar number due to such sufficient cause as may be prescribed:
Provided that such individual may be allowed to furnish such other alternate documents as may be prescribed.
Explanation.—For the purposes of this section, the expression “Aadhaar number” shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in clause (a) of section 2 of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016.