Can Aadhaar Be Made Compulsory? Supreme Court Decision Tomorrow
The court was examining the contention that the 12-digit Unique Identification number given out to 1.2 billion Indians, violates the Right to Privacy, which was named a fundamental right by the top court last year.
The government had made Aadhaar compulsory for a host of services and welfare measures
NEW DELHI:
The verdict on a clutch of 27 petitions that challenged the constitutional validity of Aadhaar will be pronounced by the Supreme Court tomorrow morning. The top court had reserved the verdict in May after a marathon hearing that stretched over nearly four months.
Hearing in the case had started in January and went on for 38 days - making it the second longest after the crucial Keshavananda Bharti case, which questioned if parliament's power to amend the Constitution was unlimited, to the extent of taking away all fundamental rights. The hearing went on for five months in 1973.
This time, a five-judge constitution bench -- headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra -- was examining an issue seen as considerably vital.
The court was examining the contention that the 12-digit Unique Identification number given out to 1.2 billion Indians, violates the Right to Privacy, which was named a fundamental right by the top court last year.
The government had made Aadhaar compulsory for a host of services and welfare measures, including bank accounts, PAN cards, cellphone services, passport and even driving licenses. It was made the over-arching proof of identity and residence, over-riding all other prior identity proofs.
The petitioners argued that Aadhaar -- built on a mammoth biometric database comprising fingerprints and iris scans -- cannot be made mandatory. They also contended that this huge database was open to compromise, citing a number of instances of data breach that had triggered a huge debate.
Arguing that the Aadhaar law impacts human life, the petitioners demanded that it be scrapped.
COMMENT
The Centre had defended Aadhaar on multiple grounds - the biggest being that it ensured proper distribution of benefits to millions and prevented siphoning of funds. Aadhaar data, government and Aadhaar authority UIADI contended, is safe and cannot be breached.