The Supreme Court directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to treat the Aadhaar card as a valid identity document for the purpose of inclusion and exclusion in the ongoing revision of the Bihar voter list.
A Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi clarified that while Aadhaar has statutory recognition under the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016, it cannot be accepted as proof of citizenship. However, in terms of Section 23(4) of the Representation of People Act, 1950, Aadhaar may be used as a supporting document to establish the identity of an individual.
The Court directed that Aadhaar be treated as the 12th document of identity by electoral authorities in Bihar. It further held that officials would be entitled to verify the authenticity of the Aadhaar card presented, just as with other enumerated documents, by seeking additional proof where necessary.
The Bench instructed the ECI to issue appropriate directions by 9 September 2025 to ensure uniform compliance across its authorities. The batch of petitions, including those filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), will next be heard on 15 September 2025.
Appearances:
For Petitioner(s) : Mr. Usman Ghani Khan , AOR;
Mr. Shoeb Alam, Sr. Adv.; Mr. Ujjwal Singh, AOR
Mr. Kapil Sibal, Sr. Adv.; Ms. Fauzia Shakil, AOR; Ms. Aparajita Jamwal, Adv.
Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sr. Adv.; Ms. Neha Rathi, AOR; Ms. Kajal Giri, Adv.; Mr. Pranav Sachdeva, Adv.; Mr. P. Rohit Ram, Adv.; Ms. Priyansha Sharma, Adv.; Ms. Somya Kumari, Adv.; Mr. Amit Bhandari, Adv.
Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sr. Adv.; Ms. Shahrukh Alam, Adv.; Mr. Amit Bhandari, Adv.; Mr. Talha Abdul Rahman, AOR; Mr. Shantanu, Adv.; Mr. M Shaz Khan, Adv.; Mr. Rafid Akhter, Adv.; Mr. Sudhanshu Tewari, Adv.; Mr. Faizan Ahmed, Adv.
Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sr. Adv.; Mr. Prashanto Chandra Sen, Sr. Adv.; Mr. Muhammad Ali Khan, Adv.; Mr. Amit Bhandari, Adv.; Mr. Omar Hoda, Adv.; Ms. Eesha Bakshi, Adv.; Mr. Uday Bhatia, Adv.; Mr. Kamran Khan, Adv.; Mr. Surya Kiran Singh, Adv.; Ms. Gurbani Bhatia, Adv.; Mr. Rohit Ghosh,
Adv.; Mr. Kalyan Bandopadhyay, Sr. Adv.; Mr. Vivek Singh, AOR; Mr. Abhisek Mohanty, Adv.
Mr. Shadan Farasat, Sr. Adv.; Mr. Harshit Anand, Adv.; Ms. Natasha Maheshwari, Adv.; Mr. Yash S. Vijay, AOR; Mr. Shikhar Aggarwal, Adv.
Mr. Haris Beeran, Adv.; Mr. Azhar Assees, Adv.
Mr. Anand B. Menon, Adv.; Mr. Radha Shyam Jena, AOR
Mr. Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Sr. Adv.; Mr. Prashant Bhushan, AOR; Ms. Neha Rathi, Adv.; Mr. Tushar Srivastava, Adv.; Mr. Shourya Dasgupta, Adv.
Mr. Satayam Singh, Adv.; Mr. Shivam Singh, Adv.; Mr. Sanjeev Gupta, Adv.; Mr. Amit Kumar Sharma, Adv.; Mr. Neeraj Kumar Singh, Adv.; Ms. Yukti Rathi, Adv.; Ms. Diksha Singh, Adv.; Ms. Vipasha Jain, Adv.; Ms. Neema, AOR
Mr. Raja Choudhary, Adv.; Ms. Anushika Mishra, Adv.; Mr. Kapil Kumar Sharma, Adv.; Mr. Rajesh Singh Chauhan, AOR
Ms. Rashmi Singh, Adv.; Ms. Pinky Behera, AOR
Mr. Atif Inam, AOR; Mr. Zarif Hosain, Adv.
Mr. Nizam Pasha, Adv.; Mr. Arif Ali, Adv.; Mr. Madhav Deepak, Adv.; Mr. Abishek Jebaraj, AOR; Ms. A Reyna Shruti, Adv.; Mr. D. P. Singh, Adv.
Mr. Prashanto C.sen, Sr. Adv.; Mr. Rohit Ghosh, Adv.; Mr. Prasanna S., AOR; Ms. Rashi Goswami, Adv.; Ms. Injila Muslim Zaidi, Adv.; Mr. Prasanna B, Adv.
Ms. Vrinda Grover, Adv.; Mr. John Simte, Adv.; Ms. Devika Tulsiani, Adv.; Mr. Soutik Banerjee, Adv.; Mr. Aakarsh Kamra, AOR
Mr. Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi, AOR; Mr. Ibad Mushtaq, Adv.; Ms. Akanksha Rai, Adv.; Ms. Gurneet Kaur, Adv.
Dr. K. S. Chauhan, Sr. Adv.; Mr. P.s. Teji, Sr. Adv.; Mr. Kriti Ranjan, Adv.; Mr. Ajit Kumar Ekka, Adv.; Mr. Alok Kumar, Adv.; Mr. Abhishek Chauhan, Adv.; Mr. Ratan Singh, Adv.; Ms. Divya Sinha, Adv.; Ms. Shriya Sethi, Adv.; Mr. S.p. Singh, Adv.l Mr. R S M Kalki, Adv; Mr. Ravi Shankar Singh, Adv.; Mr. Ravi Prakash, AOR
Mr. Ashwani Kumar Dubey, AOR
Mr. Sudhir Naagar, Adv.; Mr. Raghav Sood, Adv.; Mr. Vaibhav Mishra, AOR
For Respondent(s) : Mr. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General; Mr. Kanu Agrawal, Adv.;; Mr. Raman Yadav, Adv.; Mr. Sansriti Pathak, Adv.; Mr. Gaurang Bhushan, Adv.; Mr. Arvind Kumar Sharma, AOR
Mr. Maninder Singh, Sr. Adv.; Mr. Sidhant Kumar, Adv.; Mr. Sahil Tagotra, AOR; Mr. Prabhas Bajaj, Adv.; Ms. Manyaa Chandok, Adv.; Mr. Om Batra, Adv.; Ms. Shreya Kasera, Adv.; Mr. Rakesh Dwivedi, Sr. Adv.; Mr. Maninder Singh, Sr. Adv.; Mr. Eklavya Dwivedi, AOR; Mr. Mohd. Yasir, Adv.; Mr. Kumar Utsav, Adv.; Mr. Ashish Shukla, Adv.
Mr. Sukumar Pattjoshi, Sr. Adv.; Mr. Prateek Kumar, AOR; Mr. Raina Anand, Adv.; Mr. Devansh Rai, Adv.; Ms. Simran Parmar, Adv.
Mr. Dama Seshadri Naidu, Sr. Adv.; Mr. Prateek Kumar, AOR; Mr. Abhinav Thakur, Adv.; Mr. Deepak Sharma, Adv.; Ms. Anamika Mishra, Adv.
Mr. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General; Mr. Kanu Agrawal, Adv.; Mr. Raman Yadav, Adv.; Ms. Sansriti Pathak, Adv.; Mr. Gaurang Bhushan, Adv.; Dr. N. Visakamurthy, AOR
Mr. Manish Kumar, AOR; Mr. Divyansh Mishra, Adv.; Mr. Satish Chandra Mishra, Sr. Adv.; Mr. Shail Kumar Dwivedi, AOR; Mr. Gunnam Venketeshwara Rao, Adv.; Mr. Siddharth Krishna Dwivedi, Adv.
Mr. Shadan Farasat, Sr. Adv.; Mr. Harshit Anand, Adv.; Ms. Natashamaheshwari, Adv.; Mr. Yash S. Vijay, AOR; Mr. Shikhar Aggarwal, Adv.
Mr. Shivam Singh, Adv.; Mr. Gopal Singh, AOR
Mr. Akshat Bajpai, AOR; Mr. Sushil Kumar, Adv.; Mr. Rohit Shubham, Adv.; Mr. Shobhit Trehan, Adv.; Ms. Renuka Parmanand, Adv.; Ms. Jayashree Mishra, Adv.
Mr. Prashant Bhushan, Adv.; Mr. Shoeb Alam, Sr. Adv.; Ms. Fauzia Shakil, AOR; Mr. Ujjwal Singh, Adv.
Mr. Arman Roop Sharma, Adv.; Ms. Shimpy Sharma, Adv.; Mr. Mohd.aman Khan Afghani, Adv.; Ms. Priya Pachouri, Adv.; Ms. Shivangi Goel, Adv.; Ms. Priyanka Dubey, Adv.; Dr. Vinod Kumar Tewari, AOR
Mr. Anuj Tiwari, AOR; Ms. Diksha Gupta, Adv.
Mr. Samarvir Singh, Adv.; Mr. Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Adv.; Mr. Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, AOR; Mr. Shrirang B. Varma, Adv.
Mr. Pukhrambam Ramesh Kumar, AOR; Mr. Karun Sharma, Adv.; Ms. Anupama Ngangom, Adv.; Ms. Rajkumari Divyasana, Adv.
Mr. Padmesh Mishra, A.A.G.; Mr. S.. Udaya Kumar Sagar, AOR
Mr. Kapil Sibal, Sr. Adv.; Mr. Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Sr. Adv.; Mr. Debanjan Mandal, Adv.; Mr. Kunal Vajani, Adv.; Mr. Kunal Mimani, AOR; Ms. Mahima Cholera, Adv.; Ms. Shraddha Chirania, Adv.; Mr. Dhruv Sahu, Adv.; Ms. Aparajita Jamwal, Adv.; Mr. Tushar Shrivastava, Adv.; Mr. Shaurya Dasgupta, Adv.;
Ms. Mrinal Elkar Mazumdar,, Adv.; Indra Bhakar, Adv.; Mukesh Kumar Verma, Adv.; Mr. Shreekant Neelappa Terdal, AOR
Mr. Kaleeswaram Raj, Adv.; Mrs. Thulasi K Raj, Adv.; Ms. Aparna Menon, Adv.; Ms. Chinnu Maria Antony, Adv.; Mr. Mohammed Sadique T.a., AOR
Ms. Kumud Lata Das, AOR; Mr. Bibhuti Krishna, Adv.; Mr. Aman Anand, Adv.; Ms. Pooja Rathore, Adv.; Mr. Sourabh Suman, Adv.; Mr. Puneet Chauhan, Adv.
Mr. Kalyan Bandopadhyay, Sr. Adv.; Mr. Vivek Singh, AOR; Mr. Abhisek Mohanty, Adv.
Mr. Kapil Sibal, Sr. Adv.; Mr. Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Sr. Adv.; Mr. Debanjan Mandal, Adv.; Mr. Kunal Vajani, Adv.; Mr. Kunal Mimani, AOR; Ms. Mahima Cholera, Adv.; Ms. Shraddha Chirania, Adv.; Mr. Dhruv Sahu, Adv.; Ms. Aparajita Jamwal, Adv.; Mr. Tushar Shrivastava, Adv.; Mr. Shaurya Dasgupta, Adv.; Mr. Kailash Prashad Pandey, AOR; Mr. Hitesh Kumar Sharma, Adv.; Mr. Amit Kumar Chawla, Adv.; Mr. Mahi Pal Singh, Adv.; Mr. Akhileshwar Jha, Adv.; Ms. Shrerya Jha, Adv.; Ms. Manisha Chawla, Adv.; Ms. Sawti Vishan, Adv.; Mr. Varun Varma, Adv.; Mr. Chaman Sharma, Adv.; Ms. Arushi, Adv.; Mr. Rajender Mishra, Adv.; Mr. Shubham Rajhans, Adv.; Mr. Ishan Ranjan, Adv.; Mr. Prakhar Shukla, Adv.; Mr. Rajesh Singh, Adv.; Mr. Javed Raza, Adv.; Mr. Abhishek Sharma, Adv.; Mr. Jatin Malik, Adv.;
Mr. Anilendra Pandey, AOR; Ms. Aarati Sah, Adv.; Mr. Animesh Shukla, Adv.;
Mr. Barun Kumar Sinha, Adv.; Mrs. Pratibha Sinha, Adv.; Mr. Sneh Vardhan, Adv.; Mr. Chhail Bihari Singh, Adv.; Mr. Rakesh Mudgal, Adv.; Mr. Ritu Raj, Adv.; Mr. Pankaj Kumar Shukla, Adv.; Mrs. Kanika, Adv.; Mr. Sidhant Thakur, Adv.; Mr. Anantha Narayana M.g., AOR; Mr. Niraj, Adv.
Mr. Kumar Sambhrant Krishna, AOR; Mr. Binay Kumar, Adv.; Mr. Shubham Singh, Adv.
Dr. Siddhartha Priya Ashok, AOR; Ms. Rajni Rani, Adv.; Mr. Suraj I., Adv.
Nishesh Sharma, AOR; Mr. Shiva Nand Mishra, Adv.; Ms. Bandana Mishra, Adv.