The Supreme Court has issued notices to the Centre and the Election Commission on a plea seeking the introduction of fingerprint and iris-based biometric identification at polling stations to curb duplicate and fraudulent voting. A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant observed that while the proposal cannot be implemented for the ongoing Assembly elections, its feasibility for future elections, including parliamentary polls, needs examination.

 

The petition was filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, who argued that biometric verification would help eliminate issues such as impersonation, proxy voting, and electoral fraud. He submitted that the current system of voter ID-based identification is vulnerable due to outdated photographs and a lack of real-time validation.

 

The Supreme Court pointed out that implementing such a system would require substantial legal and procedural changes, along with significant financial investment. The plea also highlighted that biometric systems, similar to those used in Aadhaar, could ensure one citizen, one vote by providing unique and verifiable identification at polling booths. The Court has sought responses from the concerned authorities and will take up the matter after receiving their replies.