Aadhaar accepted identity

Bihar

The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Election Commission (EC) to accept Aadhaar as the 12th valid document for identity verification in Bihar’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls ahead of upcoming elections. Currently, voters can submit 11 types of identity proofs with their enumeration forms. The bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymala Bagchi clarified that Aadhaar can serve as proof of identity but not of citizenship, and instructed the EC to issue guidelines by September 9, 2025.

The government has now listed 12 documents for the SIR process, including Indian passports, birth certificates, NRC documents, Permanent Residence Certificates, caste certificates, higher education certificates, pension orders, land or house allotment certificates, PSU or pre-1987 government documents, family registers, Forest Rights Certificates, and Aadhaar. Each of these serves as proof of identity, residence, or entitlement for official purposes. The EC must ensure the authenticity of submitted Aadhaar numbers to prevent fake or illegal entries, as the bench emphasized that only genuine citizens should be included in voter lists.

The court also asked the EC to explain show-cause notices issued to officials who refused to accept Aadhaar as a valid identity proof. Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing the EC, noted that most voters—99.6% of 7.24 crore—had already submitted other valid documents, and no significant exclusions had been reported.

The SC highlighted that confusion in Bihar’s SIR largely stems from a trust issue and directed the state legal services authority to deploy paralegal volunteers to assist voters in filing claims and objections. As per the EC schedule, the final voter list is to be published by September 30, following the processing of over 22,000 inclusion claims and more than 1.34 lakh objections received between August 22 and 30.