SC declines plea to remove Aadhaar from SIR document list, says RP Act still endorses it as identity proof

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (February 24, 2026) refused to alter a September 2025 order to use Aadhaar in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process, saying the Representation of the People Act continues to endorse the 12-digit unique identity number as an identity proof for citizens.

A Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said petitioner-advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay should take his apprehensions that fake Aadhaar cards were manufactured on an “industrial scale” in the border areas to the Union Government.

The apex court made it clear that as long as the Representation of the People Act included Aadhaar as a proof of identity, the court had no choice but to follow the law.

Section 23 of the Representation of the People Act of 1950 notes that a person could furnish her Aadhaar number to the Electoral Registration Officer for the purpose of establishing her identity.

“You make a representation to the Union Government to amend the Representation of the People Act… This cannot be a discussion before our forum always. If, as you say, Aadhaar has been fraudulently procured on an industrial scale, then it requires to be statutorily regulated…” Justice Bagchi addressed Mr. Upadhyay.

Mr. Upadhyay said that “whenever there are Bangladeshis or Rohingyas captured by the police, the Aadhaar cards found on them are from Bengal”.

Chief Justice Kant said the issue was serious, though it was pressed before the wrong forum, the court, instead of the government.

Earlier, too, the court had objected to an argument that Aadhaar must be dropped from the list of documents that electors were allowed to use for the purpose of identity verification during the SIR.

Mr. Upadhyay, on that occasion, had argued that Aadhaar was easily forged and could be sourced through private agencies.

“Do you know that a passport is also outsourced to a private agency under the auspices of the Government of India? These private service centres [through which Aadhaar enrolments and updates may be done] operate under the statutory authorities or the government itself. Aadhaar is a public document. Any document can be forged. Even a passport can be forged, while issuing Aadhaar, the private centre is performing a public duty,” Justice Bagchi had remarked then.

Also read: UIDAI launches new Aadhaar app; can be used to verify age without oversharing data, IT Secretary says

On September 8, last year, the apex court had ordered the Election Commission to include Aadhaar as the 12th ‘indicative’ document for verification and a proof of identity. The order was passed during the Bihar SIR exercise.

Mr. Upadhyay had also sought “periodic SIR”, arguing that infiltration into India has crossed the limit to become a form of “external aggression”.