AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 4756 - Centre seeks modification of court order on Aadhaar

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

Saturday, October 5, 2013

4756 - Centre seeks modification of court order on Aadhaar - The Hindu

NEW DELHI, October 4, 2013

Centre seeks modification of court order on Aadhaar

LEGAL CORRESPONDENT

The Supreme Court on Friday posted for hearing on October 8 an application filed by the Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, (MOPNG), seeking modification of the interim order that restrained the government from making Aadhaar card mandatory for transfer of social welfare benefits to beneficiaries.

Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran made a ‘mention’ before a Bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi for urgent listing of the application. The court directed it to be listed for hearing on February 8 before the appropriate Bench.

In its order on September 23, a Bench of Justices B.S. Chauhan and S.A. Bobde said: “In the meanwhile, no person should suffer for not getting the Aadhaar card in spite of the fact that some authority had issued a circular making it mandatory and when any person applies to get the Aadhaar Card voluntarily, it may be checked whether that person is entitled for it under the law and it should not be given to any illegal immigrant.”

The application said: “The above order has the effect of staying the Direct Benefit Transfer for Liquefied Petroleum Gas Consumers [DBTL] scheme, which has been launched by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas on June 1 and is currently in operation in 54 districts as it mandatorily requires the beneficiary to possess a Unique Identification for receiving subsidy.”

The Centre clarified that retail consumers would not require the Aadhaar card to purchase LPG cylinders from the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) at market prices. Only those who were seeking subsidy on supply of market price cylinders (up to nine cylinders per annum) were required to mandatorily obtain an Aadhaar card and produce the same to avail of the subsidy.

It said:

“The DBTL scheme has been launched to ensure that the LPG consumers’ entitlement is not diverted and to prevent leakage in the LPG subsidy, which amounted to Rs. 3,95,58,00,00,000 in 2012-13 . Given the gap in the market price and the subsidised price of LPG, there is a strong incentive to direct the cylinders for commercial purposes in a manner that is not permissible otherwise, defeating the purpose of the policy and causing loss to the exchequer.

“The DBTL scheme, by use of Aadhaar number, which provides a unique identification of every individual, has put into place a robust mechanism to ensure that bogus/duplicate connections are detected and sale happens at market prices while genuine consumers can avail of subsidy in their bank accounts. This will prevent unscrupulous elements from diverting the public resources for illegal purposes and consequently reduce the subsidy burden. So far, over one crore [1,00,00,000] subsidy transfer transactions have been done to over 4.5 million LPG consumers amounting to Rs. 471.39 crore.

“Keeping in mind the objectives for which the DBTL scheme has been launched and implemented and the absolute necessity of the Aadhaar card to ensure its successful implementation the Court should modify its order to state that while no one might be denied domestic LPG cylinders at market rates in the absence of Aadhaar cards, the card might be allowed to be mandatorily sought by the MOPNG to make subsidy payments to those entitled to the same under the DBTL scheme in order to eliminate the diversion of subsidised cylinders into black market.”