AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 13070 - SC: How many denied benefits due to Aadhaar authentication failure?

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, March 24, 2018

13070 - SC: How many denied benefits due to Aadhaar authentication failure? - TNN

SC: How many denied benefits due to Aadhaar authentication failure?

Dhananjay Mahapatra | TNN | Mar 23, 2018, 01:52 IST

HIGHLIGHTS

UIDAI CEO told SC that it had been pleading with all ministries not to deny anyone financial benefits because of authentication failure
He said Aadhaar took concrete shape in 2009 and the first card was issued in 2010
But do you come to know where financial benefits are denied?, SC asked UIDAI

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court asked UIDAI CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey whether the authority had data on failure of Aadhaar authentication leading to denial of financial benefits or deprivation of foodgrain to citizens.

Referring to petitioners’ citing several instances of starvation deaths, denial of pension and rejection of admission to schools for want of Aadhaar authentication, a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan asked, “UIDAI can detect failure of authentication. But do you come to know where financial benefits are denied? Is there official data on how many were denied financial benefits?” Pandey said the UIDAI had been pleading with all ministries not to deny anyone financial benefits because of authentication failure.

Justice Sikri said, “Take for example a person goes to a ration shop in a remote area, where even though the authentication is done, the ration shop owner says it has failed. The woman goes away and the ration shop owner draws ration in her name. Can this be stopped?” Pandey said, “That is the precise reason why the unfortunate death of a woman happened in Jharkhand. Despite approval of her Aadhaar authentication, the ration shop owner asked her to come the next day and drew ration in her name. This is a problem caused by human greed and corruption. This is not because of Aadhaar, which cannot solve every problem. This has to be tackled by other means at the local level. “We will never be able to achieve 100% authentication as it involves technology, machines, connectivity and power back up. Failure of any of these can lead to failure of authentification. But we have made provision in the Aadhaar Act that failure of authentication is no ground to deny financial benefits. The benefits are to be given after entering failure of authentication in the exception list.”

Pandey said Aadhaar took concrete shape in 2009 and the first card was issued in 2010.

TOP COMMENT

Aaddhar as very poverful profiling tool. Already Election commissioner is too eager to please government by linking Aadhaar with Voters ID. Tommorrow they will link it with Census so that ruling part... Read More

Girish Kamat

“We were enrolling 20 lakh persons for Aadhaar daily, but with 120 crore people already enrolled, the daily enrolment figure has come down to 2 lakh. The Aadhaar data is fully under our control and the storage software is not connected to the internet, thus eliminating hacking risk. For authenitcation, we do not send biometrics to the point of authentication,” he said.

“Aadhaar is a 12-digit number randomly issued to residents. There is no geographical coding for anyone to ascertain whether a person belongs to a particular region. There is no data on the person’s religion. We do not share Aadhaar data with investigating agencies. National Investigation Agency has never asked for Aadhaar data. The CBI had moved Bombay HC for Aadhaar data and was permitted to get it. We immediately moved the SC and got it stayed. We operate on a solemn promise that Aadhaar data cannot be shared with anyone,” Pandey said. He will continue his presentation on Tuesday.