Dhananjay Mahapatra | TNN | Updated: Mar 21, 2018, 07:43 IST
HIGHLIGHTS
- During the hearing, the Centre had clarified that Aadhaar would not be mandatory for students appearing in all-India entrance examinations such as NEET
- SC passed an interim order indefinitely extending the mandatory Aadhaar linkage deadline of March 31
- Chidambaram attacked the Centre for passing Aadhaar as a money bill and said this move hit at the country’s federal structure
NEW DELHI: The Centre on Wednesday will start countering a mountain of legal issues heaped against Aadhaar in the Supreme Court by numerous petitioners in the last two months, primarily focussing on violation of individual’s right to privacy through collection and storage of biometric data.
During 19 days of arguments spanning two months since it began on January 17, senior advocates Shyam Divan, Kapil Sibal, P Chidambaram, Gopal Subramanium, K V Vishwanathan, Anand Grover, Meenakshi Arora, Sajan Poovayya and C U Singh identified specific issues in the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016, and their incongruence with guaranteed constitutional rights.
Divan, the lead counsel for Aadhaar opponents, argued for more than seven days and attempted to shred the foundation of the unique identity by presenting Aadhaar as a draconian surveillance device open to abuse by the government.
Sibal supplemented Divan and had said, “This is the most important case for India since 1947. What the Supreme Court will decide is going to have a profound bearing not only on the present generation but all future generations. That is the enormity of the issue. It will decide the value of right to privacy of citizens in future. The SC judgment on Aadhaar will also decide whether fundamental rights will be preserved or destroyed.”
Chidambaram attacked the Centre for passing Aadhaar as a money bill and said this move hit at the country’s federal structure as it deprived Rajya Sabha of making amendments to Aadhaar and also prevented the President from returning the bill with objections. As one of the last to argue, Poovayya on Tuesday gave a technological spin and said though there was no objection to collection of biometrics, the manner of data storage and sharing was bound to infringe upon citizens’ right to privacy.
TOP COMMENT
what fundamental rights are these criminals speaking. if you are not corrupt why should you be afraid. if the govt brings in rules then people have to follow it.
Alagar Aravindh
He cited a 25-year-old German Federal Court decision, which had partially struck down Census Act of 1983 for permitting sharing of personal data with local authorities. The German court had said every citizen had an inviolable “informational self-determination” right.
Poovayya suggested that the Aadhaar card could be equipped with a chip, like credit and debit cards, to store personal information, and a person could then exercise his right whether or not to swipe it at a particular place for authentication of his identity.
During the hearing, the Centre had clarified on March 7 that Aadhaar would not be mandatory for students appearing in all-India entrance examinations such as NEET. A week later, the SC passed an interim order indefinitely extending the mandatory Aadhaar linkage deadline of March 31. Attorney general K K Venugopal will answer the charges levelled against Aadhaar.
