Parliament has passed the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill with the Rajya Sabha approving it yesterday. The Upper House passed the legislation amid the walkout by the opposition members. Lok Sabha had passed the bill on Monday.
The main objective of the Bill is to pave the way for linkage of electoral roll data with the AADHAAR ecosystem. This will address the menace of multiple enrolment of the same person in electoral rolls at different places. Besides, the legislation gives four opportunities to enroll in a calendar year as voter upon attaining 18 years of age.
Earlier it was confined to once on the 1st of January of every year. Now it will be 1st day of the month of January, April, July and 1st day of October. Apart from all these specifications, the Bill has provisions of gender neutrality in regard with service voters and to enable the requisition of any premises for election purposes.
