New Delhi | The Supreme Court on Monday sought responses from the Centre, Election Commission and others on a plea seeking to implement finger and iris biometric identification system at polling stations to prevent duplicate voting.
While agreeing to hear the plea, a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi made clear that the prayer sought in the petition can't be considered for the current state Assembly elections in some states.
"However, whether such a recourse deserves to be followed before the next parliamentary election and/or state assembly elections needs to be examined. Issue notice," the bench said.
The top court issued notice to the Centre, the poll panel and several other states seeking their responses on the plea filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay.
Upadhyay, who appeared in person, told the bench that the prayer sought in the plea would prevent bribery and proxy voting.
The bench observed that it would require major changes in the rules and would incur huge financial burden.
The plea said the poll panel, by using its plenary power under Article 324, may implement finger and iris based biometric authentication to strengthen voter identification and eliminate bribery, undue influence, personation, duplicate and ghost voting.
During the hearing, Upadhyay said he was not on the ongoing state Assembly in five states.
The plea said that adoption of finger and iris biometric verification at the polling booths in elections would ensure that only genuine and duly registered electors are permitted to cast their votes.
"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," it submitted.
"Therefore, to uphold the constitutional mandate of free and fair elections, the Election Commission of India may consider implementing finger and iris biometric authentication at polling booths in impending assembly elections," the plea said.
It claimed that at present, voter identification is based on voter ID cards and manual verification, which are susceptible to misuse due to outdated photographs, clerical errors, and a lack of real-time validation.
"This creates scope for impersonation and multiple voting by the same individual or by unauthorised 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'," it said.
The plea said a significant portion of the population is migratory, often leading to inconsistencies in electoral rolls across constituencies It said finger and iris biometric identification enables real-time authentication, creating a verifiable digital record of voter verification at polling booths.
The plea said the Aadhaar system, implemented by the Unique Identification Authority of India, has successfully established a robust biometric identity framework in India.
"Its use in sectors such as banking and welfare schemes delivery has significantly reduced fraud and ensured accurate identification. Extending similar biometric verification to elections would be a logical and effective step," it said.
