The Union Law and Justice Ministry has extended the deadline for voluntary linking of Aadhaar and Voter ID from April 1 this year to March 31, 2024, as per a notification issued on Tuesday. The Ministry had on June 17, 2022, notified April 1, 2023, as the "date on or before which every person whose name is included in the electoral roll may intimate his Aadhaar number in accordance with the said section”. Tuesday’s notification replaced the date with “31st March, 2024”. The Election Commission had started a campaign on August 1, 2022, to collect voters’ Aadhaar numbers in a voluntary drive, under the Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021, which enabled it to do so. In a Right to Information reply to The Indian Express on December 15, 2022, EC had said it had collected 54.32 crore Aadhaar numbers till December 12, however, the process of linking with the Voter IDs had not been started as yet. As of January 1, EC said there were 95 crore registered electors in the country.
