Cabinet nod likely for electoral reforms Bill

Plan to link voters’ list with Aadhaar

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday cleared a Bill on electoral reforms, including the one to link electoral roll with Aadhaar on a voluntary basis to root out multiple enrolments. The Bill is likely to be introduced in the ongoing winter session.

According to the Bill, the electoral law will also be made “gender neutral” for service voters. An Army man’s wife is entitled to be enrolled as a service voter, but a woman Army officer’s husband is not, according to provisions in the electoral law. But this may change once the Bill gets Parliament’s nod.

The poll panel had asked the Law Ministry to replace the term ‘wife’ with ‘spouse’ in the provision in the Representation of the People Act related to service voters.