Election Laws Amendment Act, 2021

On 21^st December, 2021, the Parliament passed The Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021. The Act amends the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and the Representation of the People Act, 1951 to implement certain electoral reforms.

Salient Features: Linking Aadhaar and Voter ID: It provides for amendment of section 23 of the Representation of People’s Act, 1950, enabling the linking of electoral roll data with the Aadhaar ecosystem.

• Four Qualifying Dates: It suggest for an amendment to Section 14 of the RP Act that will allow four “qualifying” dates for eligible people to register as voters. As per new provisions, January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1 in a calendar year will be the qualifying dates.
• Gender Neutrality: It aims to bring Gender Neutrality (replace the word “wife” with the word “spouse”) with the amendment to Section 20 of the RP Act, 1950 and Section 60 of the RP Act, 1951.

Impact: Curbing Menace of Multiple Enrolment: The linking of Aadhaar with voter ID will provide an additional tool to authenticate a voter’s identity. One of the important benefits of linking Aadhaar with voter ID is to remove duplicates in the electoral rolls.

• Securing Electronic Voting: It will help to work towards secure electronic voting for migrant workers.
• Clean up Electoral Rolls: It will help clean up electoral rolls and facilitate elector registration in the location at which they are “ordinarily resident” and make the electoral process credible.