March 19, 2025 - The Election Commission of India (ECI) held a high-level meeting yesterday, March 18, on the linking of Aadhaar cards with Voter IDs without violating Supreme Court orders. The meeting, held in the Election House, was led by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Present were Election Commissioners Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Dr Vivek Joshi, Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, MeitY Secretary S Krishnan, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) CEO Bhuvnesh Kumar, Legislative Department Secretary and ECI technical experts.

A decision was taken in the meeting to seek technical advice on the process of linking Aadhaar with Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) number. The ECI said technical consultations between UIDAI and ECI experts will begin soon and then only will it be clear how to move forward.

ECI has assured that this process will be in accordance with the existing legal provisions and as per the directions of the Supreme Court. And that it will be entirely voluntary.

The Supreme Court had ruled in 2018 that Aadhaar statute was Constitutional, but it objected to the government's mandated linking of Aadhaar to bank accounts and mobile connections. The Court had, however, approved linking Aadhaar to a bank account in order to access government subsidies and social programmes.

The Congress party has claimed that this move by the ECI is a result of the party’s complaints regarding discrepancies in voter lists between the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Maharashtra. After Maha Vikas Aghadi’s loss in the polls, Congress had made allegations of an abnormal increase in new voters enrolled in just five months between the two elections, which, the party claimed, indicated fake voters having multiple Voter IDs

In a statement on X, the party said: “Acknowledging the Congress party’s charge of suspect voter lists, the Election Commission seeks to clean it up using Aadhaar. Congress party welcomes a constructive solution with guardrails to not deny anyone the right to vote.”