Figure 2: No Copyright Infringement Intended

Context:

• The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 that seeks to link electoral rolls to Aadhaar number has been listed for introduction in the Lok Sabha.

Details:

• It allows electoral registration officers to ask for Aadhaar numbers of applicants wanting to register as voters to establish the identity of the applicant.
• It also seeks to allow the officers to ask for the number from

• persons already included in the electoral roll for the purposes of authentication of entries in electoral roll,
• to identify registration of name of the same person in the electoral roll of more than one constituency or more than once in the same constituency.

• No application for inclusion of name in the electoral roll shall be denied and no entries in the electoral roll shall be deleted for inability of an individual to furnish Aadhaar number.
• People who cannot furnish their Aadhaar numbers will be allowed to present other documents to establish identity.

Amendment to Various acts:

• Amendment to Section 14 of the RP Act, 1950 will allow to have four “qualifying” dates for eligible people to register as voters.
• Amendment to Section 20 of the RP Act, 1950 and Section 60 of the RP Act, 1951 will allow the elections become gender-neutral for service voters.
• It will also replace the word “wife” with the word “spouse” making the statutes “gender neutral”. 

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