In 2009, I became extremely concerned with the concept of Unique Identity for various reasons. Connected with many like minded highly educated people who were all concerned.
On 18th May 2010, I started this Blog to capture anything and everything I came across on the topic. This blog with its million hits is a testament to my concerns about loss of privacy and fear of the ID being misused and possible Criminal activities it could lead to.
In 2017 the Supreme Court of India gave its verdict after one of the longest hearings on any issue. I did my bit and appealed to the Supreme Court Judges too through an On Line Petition.
In 2019 the Aadhaar Legislation has been revised and passed by the two houses of the Parliament of India making it Legal. I am no Legal Eagle so my Opinion carries no weight except with people opposed to the very concept.
In 2019, this Blog now just captures on a Daily Basis list of Articles Published on anything to do with Aadhaar as obtained from Daily Google Searches and nothing more. Cannot burn the midnight candle any longer.
"In Matters of Conscience, the Law of Majority has no place"- Mahatma Gandhi
Ram Krishnaswamy
Sydney, Australia.

Aadhaar

The UIDAI has taken two successive governments in India and the entire world for a ride. It identifies nothing. It is not unique. The entire UID data has never been verified and audited. The UID cannot be used for governance, financial databases or anything. It’s use is the biggest threat to national security since independence. – Anupam Saraph 2018

When I opposed Aadhaar in 2010 , I was called a BJP stooge. In 2016 I am still opposing Aadhaar for the same reasons and I am told I am a Congress die hard. No one wants to see why I oppose Aadhaar as it is too difficult. Plus Aadhaar is FREE so why not get one ? Ram Krishnaswamy

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.-Mahatma Gandhi

In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.Mahatma Gandhi

“The invasion of privacy is of no consequence because privacy is not a fundamental right and has no meaning under Article 21. The right to privacy is not a guaranteed under the constitution, because privacy is not a fundamental right.” Article 21 of the Indian constitution refers to the right to life and liberty -Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi

“There is merit in the complaints. You are unwittingly allowing snooping, harassment and commercial exploitation. The information about an individual obtained by the UIDAI while issuing an Aadhaar card shall not be used for any other purpose, save as above, except as may be directed by a court for the purpose of criminal investigation.”-A three judge bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar said in an interim order.

Legal scholar Usha Ramanathan describes UID as an inverse of sunshine laws like the Right to Information. While the RTI makes the state transparent to the citizen, the UID does the inverse: it makes the citizen transparent to the state, she says.

Good idea gone bad
I have written earlier that UID/Aadhaar was a poorly designed, unreliable and expensive solution to the really good idea of providing national identification for over a billion Indians. My petition contends that UID in its current form violates the right to privacy of a citizen, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. This is because sensitive biometric and demographic information of citizens are with enrolment agencies, registrars and sub-registrars who have no legal liability for any misuse of this data. This petition has opened up the larger discussion on privacy rights for Indians. The current Article 21 interpretation by the Supreme Court was done decades ago, before the advent of internet and today’s technology and all the new privacy challenges that have arisen as a consequence.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP Rajya Sabha

“What is Aadhaar? There is enormous confusion. That Aadhaar will identify people who are entitled for subsidy. No. Aadhaar doesn’t determine who is eligible and who isn’t,” Jairam Ramesh

But Aadhaar has been mythologised during the previous government by its creators into some technology super force that will transform governance in a miraculous manner. I even read an article recently that compared Aadhaar to some revolution and quoted a 1930s historian, Will Durant.Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Rajya Sabha MP

“I know you will say that it is not mandatory. But, it is compulsorily mandatorily voluntary,” Jairam Ramesh, Rajya Saba April 2017.

August 24, 2017: The nine-judge Constitution Bench rules that right to privacy is “intrinsic to life and liberty”and is inherently protected under the various fundamental freedoms enshrined under Part III of the Indian Constitution

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the World; indeed it's the only thing that ever has"

“Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” -Edward Snowden

In the Supreme Court, Meenakshi Arora, one of the senior counsel in the case, compared it to living under a general, perpetual, nation-wide criminal warrant.

Had never thought of it that way, but living in the Aadhaar universe is like living in a prison. All of us are treated like criminals with barely any rights or recourse and gatekeepers have absolute power on you and your life.

Announcing the launch of the # BreakAadhaarChainscampaign, culminating with events in multiple cities on 12th Jan. This is the last opportunity to make your voice heard before the Supreme Court hearings start on 17th Jan 2018. In collaboration with @no2uidand@rozi_roti.

UIDAI's security seems to be founded on four time tested pillars of security idiocy

1) Denial

2) Issue fiats and point finger

3) Shoot messenger

4) Bury head in sand.

God Save India

Sunday, April 30, 2017

11191 - Linking PAN with Aadhaar – Update from the Supreme Court Hearing (Day – III) - Legally India


By CCG NLU Delhi

In the on-going case challenging the constitutionality of Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act (‘IT Act’), the petitioners concluded their arguments today. Our coverage of the arguments made over the last two days can be found here and here.

Today, the petitioners’ counsel elaborated on the concept of informational self-determination, as propounded by the German Federal Constitutional Court in the landmark Census decision of 1983.[1] Relying on three scholarly pieces[2], he explained that informational self-determination stemmed from the fundamental rights of human dignity and personal liberty. Collectively, these two rights formed the constitutional right to personality under the German legal framework. Informational self-determination was therefore not just a necessary condition for the free development of one’s personality, but also an essential element of a democratic society. He argued that irrespective of whether this was a constitutional value under the Indian framework, it was a legitimate value and concern for the petitioners before the Court.

The petitioners, and others who object to the Aadhaar project must have the right to informational self-determination to not give their personal information to private entities empanelled by the Government. The counsel argued that UIDAI’s enrolment process was through a network of private entities and reiterated that more than 34,000 had been blacklisted for various reasons. This, in his view established the lack of control exercised by the government during the enrolment process. Further, he relied on UIDAI’s Handbook for Registrars[3] to show that even registrars (who may be state governments, or other public or private entities) are at liberty to retain biometrics and use them for other purposes. In his view, this represented a complete destruction of personal autonomy. He argued that the IT Act could not compel him to part with his biometrics under such circumstances.

The second main ground advanced by the petitioners’ counsel was ‘compelled speech’ as a violation of Article 19(1)(a). He distinguished giving demographic information to government authorities for a singular, defined purpose from information collection under Aadhaar. As per him, the state could not compel an individual to provide fingerprints and iris scans to private third parties. He cited Bijoe Emanuel v. State of Kerala (1986) 3 SCC 615 in support of this contention.

On proportionality, it was argued that the number of PAN cards for individuals (as per the Central Government’s figures) was 29 crore. When seen against the government’s figures for duplicates, this would only amount to 0.4% of all PANs. On the other hand, the intrusion caused by enrolling for Aadhaar would be tremendous.

The petitioner’s counsel reiterated his argument on the legislature lacking competence to enact Section 139AA. He stated that the doctrine of eminent domain was limited to land and could not be extended to one’s body, except under narrowly tailored circumstances under legitimate circumstances. 

Therefore, the legislature lacked competence under Entry 82 of List I or any residuary power to enact a statute compelling parting with such intimate information.

While summing up, he also reiterated the argument on voluntariness, relying on Lord Atkin’s dissent in Liversidge v. Anderson (1942 AC 206) to emphasise that voluntary could never be interpreted as mandatory.

Finally, he urged the Court to strike down Section 139AA of the IT Act, or alternatively, read down the mandatory nature of the provision to make it voluntary. He also suggested that if the bench thought issues such as informational self-determination and compelled speech are too intertwined or if it appeared not appropriate to decide this matter independently, they may be referred to a larger bench. However, considering the irreversible consequences created by the 1st July deadline, he pressed for interim relief to stay the application of the Act or restrain the government from taking coercive steps for non-compliance. He added that protecting against invalidating one’s PAN would also be essential.

A third petition, which was subsequently filed, was also argued in Court today. The counsel for this petitioner (Mr. Dashrathbhai Patel) contended that Section 139AA was a ‘confused, self-defeating and self-destructive’ provision. He pointed out that the Explanation to the section assigned meanings to several terms as per their definitions under the Aadhaar Act. In such a circumstance, borrowing the definition of ‘enrollemt’ from the Aadhaar Act (where it was a voluntary exercise), made it impermissible to make it mandatory under the IT Act. Secondly, it was contended that the definition of demographic information under the Aadhaar Act specifically prohibited collecting information related to income. By linking PAN with Aadhaar, Section 139AA was facilitating the convergence of income information, in direct contradiction with the Aadhaar Act. He argued that what was impermissible directly could not be permissible in an indirect manner.

With this, the petitioners concluded their arguments before the Supreme Court today. The Central Government will respond on 2nd May (Tuesday).

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Disclosure: The author assisted the petitioners’ (Maj. Gen. Vombatkere and Mr. Bezwada Wilson) lawyers for today’s arguments.

[1] BVerfGE 65, 1.
[2] Bernd R. Beier, Genetic Testing and the Right of Self- Determination: The Experience in the Federal Republic of Germany 16(3) Hofstra Law Review 601-614 (1988); and Susanne Baer, Dignity, Liberty, Equality: A Fundamental Rights Triangle of Constitutionalism 59(4) University of Toronto Law Journal 417-468 (2009); Gerrit Hornung and Christoph Schnabel, Data protection in Germany I: The population census decision and the right to informational self-determination 25(1) Computer Law & Security Report 84–88 (December 2009).
[3] p. 16

Author: kritikaccg