Jairam Ramesh accuses EC of ‘brazen non‑compliance’ with SC’s Aadhaar directive

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh on Sunday said the Election Commission of India (ECI) was in “brazen non-compliance” with the Supreme Court’s directive to accept Aadhaar as proof of identity for voter registration.

In a post on X, Ramesh noted that the Supreme Court had, for the third time, reiterated that Aadhaar must be accepted as a valid ID.

He alleged that the ECI was creating “repeated obstacles” to deliberately inconvenience citizens seeking to register as voters. “The ECI has refused to recognise BLAs appointed by political parties, declined to accept Aadhaar, and even sent notices to officials to only accept the documents it has prescribed,” he wrote.

Ramesh said the present situation was “a mess of the Election Commission’s own making” and linked it to the government’s decision to push for a special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll close to the election.

“No one other than G2 asked for an SIR this close to the election. No one other than G2 asked for it to be conducted so ineptly that the Supreme Court has had to intervene to ensure basic checks and balances,” his post read.

He further said that the Congress was contesting not only against the ruling regime but also “despite the ECI.”

“This CEC and the institution he heads shall not be forgiven by history,” he concluded.