By Ravish Tiwari & Gulveen Aulakh, ET Bureau | Mar 03, 2016, 04.00 AM IST
NEW DELHI: The Aadhaar (Delivery of Benefits, Subsidies and Services) Bill, 2016 proposed by FM Arun Jaitley is all set to make the Aadhaar number mandatory for availing subsidy benefits of any government scheme, contrary to SC rulings last year that make that voluntary.
The proposed Bill, sources revealed, have already been "seen" by the Attorney General who "has opined that the same can be introduced as a Money Bill" in Parliament where opposition dominated Rajya Sabha will have no power to force any change in the legislation.
The proposed legislation will be moved along with a motion to withdraw the National Identification Authority of India (NIDAI), 2010 which was introduced by the previous UPA government to provide statutory backing to the UIDAI.
The bill, proposed by Jaitely on Monday while presenting the Union Budget, is set to be introduced in Parliament shortly.
The salient features of the proposed Bill, reviewed by ET, makes "proof of Aadhaar number and Aadhar Authentication as a condition for receipt of benefit, subsidy, etc. funded from Consolidated Fund of India" which was not the case of the UPA's legislation.
This feature of the proposed legislation, however, appeared to run counter to the two rulings of the SC.
"The production of an Aadhaar card will not be condition for obtaining any benefits otherwise due to a citizen," the SC had ruled in an interim order in August last year , exempting its use for public distribution system (PDS) and LPG distribution.
The Court reiterated its stance again in October 2015 when central government sought concession for voluntary usage of Aadhaar in other government programmes pending a final verdict on Aadhaar.
"We will also make it clear than the Aadhaar card scheme is purely voluntary and it cannot be made mandatory till the matter is finally decided by this Court one way or the other," SC had ordered in October last year while allowing the government to allow use of Aadhar in schemes like MGNREGA, EPFO, PM's Jan Dhan Yojana and National Social Assistance Programme.
While the standing committee of Finance headed by BJP leader and former FM Yashwant Sinha had trashed the UIDAI's enrolment process as something that "may have far reaching consequences for national security", the proposed Bill by BJP government seeks to abide by the decision to grant Aadhaar to every "resident".
The BJP, in fact, had also objected, saying that granting Aadhaar to "residents" may allow illegal Bangladeshis to avail it and later misuse for their purposes.
However, the salient features suggest that the definition of resident has been "modified" to include "a person who is resident in India within the meaning of section 6(1) of the Income-Tax Act". But, it did not indicate how it will address BJP's earlier concern regarding its usage by illegal immigrants residing in the country for long.
The proposed legislation, in a significant measure, seeks to protect the electronic information collected by the UIDAI from misuse as it seeks to specify that biometric information shall be "specifically deemed to be sensitive personal information as per IT Act". It will also define the "core biometric information" and will insist "prohibition on the sharing of core biometric information".
The Bill proposed by Jaitley, in fact, will provide statutory backing to the UIDAI as it provides for establishment of the Unique Identification Authroity of India consisting of "a Chairperson (part time or full tine) and two Members (part time)" which was also envisaged in the UPA's Bill.
On the lines of UPA's bill, the proposed bill envisages an Oversight Committee to monitor disclosure of Information under the Act.
