FEB 2, 2023

Minister of Law and Justice, Shri Kiren Rijiju in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today informed that the process of purification of electoral roll is an ongoing process and involves various stakeholders including political parties, at every stage starting from enrolment of voters, amendment in the roll to effect material changes by virtue of change of residence, marriage, etc.  In the process, the electoral registration officer relies upon various documents and undertakes physical verification and also disposes objections, if any. The Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021 inter-alia envisaged that the electoral registration officer may also require the Aadhaar number for the purposes of authentication of entries in electoral roll. Therefore, Aadhaar is only one of several documents for authentication and identification for the purposes of purifying the electoral rolls.           

According to the Election Commission of India, with regard to persons enrolled on Voter ID database, as per the final publication of electoral roll as on 01.01.2023, the total number of persons enrolled were 94,50,25,694.  Another information is being collected and will be laid on the Table of the House.