Last Modified: Wed, Oct 07 2015. 04 42 PM IST
The Supreme Court restricts Aadhaar use to identifying beneficiaries of the public distribution system and subsidies on cooking gas and kerosene
The constitution bench is yet to be constituted by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, H.L Dattu. Photo: Mint
New Delhi: A Supreme Court bench on Wednesday declined to modify its 11 August interim order restricting Aadhaar to food and fuel for now, and referred the issue to a larger constitution bench.
The earlier order by the three-judge bench comprising justices J. Chelameswar, S.A. Bobde and C. Nagappan had said that the use of Aadhaar should be restricted to identifying beneficiaries of the public distribution system (PDS) and subsidies on cooking gas and kerosene.
“Even for the PDS, kerosene and LPG (cooking gas) distribution system, the card will not be mandatory,” the court order had said.
Mint reported that the Union government would put up a joint defence for Aadhaar before the court to allow the use of the unique identification number for various welfare schemes.
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, Securities and Exchange Board of India, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority, Life Insurance Corp. of India, the income tax department and the Reserve Bank of India have supported the government plea to modify the court’s 11 August order and sought to link Aadhaar to the schemes they offer.
On Tuesday, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi who led the arguments against the court’s stay on the use of Aadhaar, had asked the court “if an interim order stops the benefit from reaching 50 crore (500 million) people?”
Separately, a reference on whether the Aadhaar scheme would be a violation of a citizen’s fundamental right of privacy was on 11 August referred to a larger constitution bench for its consideration. The bench is yet to be constituted by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, H.L Dattu.
Now, the applications seeking clarification and modification of the interim order will be decided by the same constitution bench that will hear the privacy issue.