The Supreme Court on Monday asked Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala to move to the Delhi high court with his petition challenging the Election Law Amendment Act that enables linking electoral roll data with the Aadhaar ecosystem.
A bench of justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna refused to entertain Surjewala public interest litigation (PIL) in this regard, while allowing him to withdraw the plea and approach the high court.
In his petition, the Congress leader said linking of the cards “infringes upon the fundamental right of privacy of citizens and is unconstitutional and ultra vires the Constitution”.
“Linking of Aadhaar data with Electronic Electoral Photo Identity Card data will allow the personal and private data of voters to be available to a statutory authority and shall impose a limitation on the voters, i.e., the voters will now have to establish their identity before the Electoral Registration Officer (Respondent No. 2) by furnishing their respective Aadhaar details.
“The situation will further be aggravated by the fact that at present there are no laws for protecting the data of citizens,” the plea said.