The Supreme
Court on Monday agreed to examine a plea challenging the Centre's decision that
enables linking electoral roll data with the Aadhaar ecosystem.
A bench of Justices S K Kaul and Abhay S Oka tagged the petition
filed by former Major General S G Vombatkere with a similar pending matter.
"Petitioner has drawn attention to 2019 Aadhaar judgment to
contend that only if some benefit is sought to be conferred then Aadhaar can be
mandatory but not to deny rights, and the right to vote is the highest of such
rights.
"Two other petitions have also been filed by him and there
may be some overlapping. Thus, this requires tagging. Tag this petition with
that matter," the bench said.
Senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for the petitioner,
submitted that right to vote is one of the most sacred rights and it should not
be denied if an individual lacks Aadhaar.
The
Centre had earlier amended the Registration of Electors Rules to allow linking
Aadhaar details with a voters list to weed out duplicate entries and make election
law gender neutral for service voters.