The Supreme Court of India on Monday issued notices to the Union government and the Election Commission of India on a public interest litigation seeking the introduction of fingerprint and iris-based biometric verification at polling stations to curb electoral malpractices.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, along with Justice Joymalya Bagchi, took note of the plea filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay under Article 32 of the Constitution. The court indicated that while such measures may not be feasible for upcoming state elections, their applicability for future polls, including the next general election, could be examined.
“Prima facie, the nature of reliefs cannot be considered for the ensuing elections in some of the states. However, whether such a recourse deserves to be followed for the next parliamentary elections and/or elections of state legislatures needs to be examined,” the Court observed.
The petitioner argued that biometric authentication would help ensure that only genuine voters cast ballots. “The injury to citizens is extremely large as bribery, undue influence, personation, duplicate voting and ghost voting still affects the purity and integrity of the electoral process,” the petition submitted.
It further stated, “This creates scope for impersonation and multiple voting by the same individual or by unauthorized persons. Finger and iris biometric authentication, being unique to each individual, would eliminate duplication/ghost voting and ensure strict compliance of ‘One Citizen, One Vote’.”
The court also considered concerns over the financial and logistical implications of implementing such a system nationwide. The Chief Justice observed that the proposal would require significant legal changes and resources, noting that “Anything which is for fairness of elections, power can be traced out.”
Upadhyay submitted that while immediate implementation may not be practical, the system could be introduced in future elections to prevent practices such as proxy voting and inducement of voters. The plea emphasized that current methods based on voter ID cards and manual verification are vulnerable to misuse due to outdated photographs and lack of real time validation.
The petition also pointed out that Aadhaar-based identification has already been recognized under existing electoral laws and suggested that biometric verification could be implemented on similar lines.
The case is expected to be taken up again after responses are filed by the Centre and the Election Commission. (With inputs from Live Law)
