An activist has lodged a complaint with the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Telangana chief electoral officer (CEO), alleging that electoral roll photographs were shared with the state government and later used to build a facial recognition system.
”I have filed a complaint with the CEO Telangana, Election Commission of India on how Government of Telangana used photographs from Electoral Rolls to build a facial recognition/AI system. This has happened because ECI has shared our data during Aadhaar Voter ID linking exercise,” said Srinivas Kodali, an independent researcher and tech expert, in a post on X along with screenshots of the complaint.
HT has reached out to ECI, but did not receive a response till the time of going to print.
The Telangana CEO’s office, in response to HT’s queries, said, “On above, It has been forwarded to IT & C department for their remarks on 1/9/2025. A reminder also sent today.”
In his complaint, Kodali alleged the state government developed the Real Time Digital Authentication of Identity (RTDAI) which relied on electoral roll photographs and demographic details. “This system was first used to verify pensioners in Telangana and later expanded everywhere else,” he claimed on X.
Kodali, in his complaint, said the RTDAI was piloted in an electoral context by the Telangana state Election Commission, where live photographs of voters were matched against those in the electoral rolls.
He claimed the system has since been deployed by state government departments, including transport and education. The activist cited documents from the Dr Marri Channa Reddy Human Resource Development Institute of Telangana and Right to Information (RTI) replies that, he said, confirm the use of Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) images to build the system.
Kodali said documents obtained from the ECI show that the CEO Telangana shared EPIC data with the state’s state resident data hub during the National Electoral Roll Purification – Authentication Programme (NERP-AP) conducted in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in 2015.
NERP-AP was introduced in 2015 to link Aadhaar numbers with voter identity cards and remove duplicate entries.The Supreme Court later ordered the ECI to stop the programme, citing the absence of statutory backing for Aadhaar–voter ID linkage.
The activist said that although the Supreme Court directed the ECI to stop NERP-AP through a letter dated August 13, 2015, the information had already been shared and deletions of voters from the rolls followed.
“The NERP-AP was stopped by the Supreme Court of India and these instructions were communicated to your office through letter No. 23/1/2015(NERPAP)-ERS dated: 13th August, 2015 by Narendra N Butolia, secretary, Election Commission of India. Yet, by then your office has shared all the information to the Government of Telangana and deleted several voters without due process affecting the Telangana general assembly elections of 2018,” he said.
ECI had told courts that NERP-AP was only a pilot exercise and was discontinued after the Supreme Court’s order. It has also stated that Aadhaar–voter ID linking was voluntary and meant to prevent duplication, and that no voter was to be deleted solely for lack of Aadhaar.
Civil society groups have contested this, saying deletions in Telangana indicate otherwise.
Kodali said the privacy violations that occurred during NERP-AP were not addressed by the CEO’s office and claimed that the use of EPIC photographs continues. He wrote that using the electoral roll photos for facial recognition is “patently unlawful” and demanded that data sharing with the state government or other external agencies cease.
He also asked the CEO to conduct an audit and ensure deletion of EPIC photographs held outside the Commission’s office.“Provide, within 15 days, a written explanation of the legal authority under which your office shared electoral roll data with the Government of Telangana,” he added.
