4817 - Cabinet gives go-ahead to Aadhaar Bill - Economic Times

Cabinet gives go-ahead to Aadhaar Bill

ET Bureau Oct 9, 2013, 05.38AM IST

NEW DELHI: Days after Supreme Court's ruling that said Aadhaar cannot be made mandatory for availing government benefits, the Union Cabinet gave a go-ahead to the National Identification Authority of India Bill with minor amendments on Tuesday.

The Bill will now be placed before the Rajya Sabha for discussion during the winter session. Once approved by Parliament, the law will provide statutory status to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which functions under the Planning Commission.

UIDAI, which has been mandated to issue 12-digit Aadhaar numbers to 60 crore residents by 2014, currently operates through an executive order. The new law seeks to create a National Identification Authority of India, which will oversee implementation of the Aadhaar project. It also seeks to define penalties in case of misuse of data collected under the project.

According to a senior government official, who did not wish to be identified, the amended Bill addresses the issue of whether the UIDAI can enroll all residents or Indian nationals only, an issue raised by the Supreme Court.

"The Aadhaar number can be issued to any resident, including foreign nationals. It does not confers any rights regarding citizenship or domicile or any other right as per Section 6 of the Bill," the official explained. "Aadhaar establishes the identity of a person and not the nationality. It also serves as proof of residence. Moreover, it is a voluntary facility and not mandatory," the official clarified.

The Supreme Court in its interim order last month had said that Aadhaar number should not be given to illegal immigrants. The Bill was first approved by the Cabinet in 2010 and introduced in the Rajya Sabha in December that year. It was sent for scrutiny to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance headed by former finance minister and BJP leader Yashwant Sinha.

The committee had raised concerns about the policy, concept and expenditure of the authority. As on September 30, the UIDAI had incurred an expenditure of Rs 3,490 crore. However, the entire project cost was envisaged at Rs 12,398 crore. The authority has already enrolled around 44 crore residents across 18 states where it operates.

It has been mandated to enroll and collect biometric data of 60 crore residents across 18 states, while data of the remaining 61 crore population would be collected under the National Population Register programme. The 12-digitnumber for the entire 121 crore population will be generated by the UIDAI.

UID against rural poor?

RTI activist Aruna Roy has told the Supreme Court that the Unique Identification being assigned to every citizen is loaded against the rural poor. The cash payments being planned depend on a banking network in every remote part of the country, said Roy, in a petition filed along with other activists on Monday.

The dependence on machines, need for high-quality internet connectivity and vital role played by unaccountable private operators makes the system a potential nightmare for the intended beneficiaries," the petition said.

4799 - UPA ready for Aadhaar battle on two flanks - The Hindu

NEW DELHI, October 8, 2013

Updated: October 9, 2013 10:48 IST

UPA ready for Aadhaar battle on two flanks

NITIN SETHI

The Union Cabinet approved the bill it had earlier sent to Parliament with just a few amendments

On Aadhaar, the UPA has decided to take on the Supreme Court as well as the Opposition. The government on Tuesday defended Aadhaar before the Supreme Court asking for relief from the interim orders. It has decided to argue that the judiciary has encroached upon its executive decision-making space with the order. In parallel, the Union Cabinet cleared the National Identification Authority of India Bill on Tuesday, rejecting all key reservations of the Parliament Standing Committee which had studied the original 2010 version of the bill.

The standing committee had made scathing comments on the bill as well as the functioning of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) without a parliamentary mandate.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court decided not to alter its interim orders on Aadhaar as pleaded by the government and oil PSUs. The order had put critical restrictions against the use and distribution of the unique identity numbers. But the government has prepared a brief to fight it out aggressively in the court claiming that the court orders are impinging on the powers of the executive, which includes the right to make the identity numbers mandatory for the government’s targeted social schemes, if it so wishes.

In a move that is designed to also provide more solid grounds for the government to continue with its policy on Aadhaar, the Union Cabinet approved the bill it had earlier sent to Parliament with just a few amendments even as it endorsed the position that the current model, policy and processes of the UID are foolproof, adequate and legally sound.

If the two-pronged attack works and the government is able to get a nod for the bill in the winter session of Parliament, it could secure a legal mandate of the UIDAI that has been lacking so far and quell dissent and litigation.

With the court agreeing to hold an early final hearing in the case on October 22, the government plans to make the case that there is no credible proof of a wide-scale denial of benefits to people without Aadhaar numbers. The government will claim there are only some aberrations at worst and that the government is ensuring that those without cards do not get left out while the distribution of cards is not complete. At the same time the government will defend its right to make the cards mandatory for its social security schemes. It will equate the Aadhaar card to a ration card or a driving license arguing that the government can choose what measures it takes to identify beneficiaries. It will distinguish between government schemes and other programmes or services that do not require to be targeted, such as opening of bank accounts or telephone connections.

It will also argue in detail that it is not the UIDAI’s job to identify illegal migrants and block any chances of these individuals of securing Aadhaar cards. It will claim that work is done by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Aadhaar will act as proof of identity and residence. Again its line of argument would be that there may be stray cases and aberrations but there is no hard proof of systematic leakage in their ‘robust’ verification methods.

With the UPA still keen to push the cash transfer scheme through Aadhaar, calling it Direct Benefit Transfer, the government also has taken the position that LPG connections are not linked to the UID cards.

While clearing the bill in the cabinet too the UPA has decided to reinforce its power to make the aadhaar cards mandatory when it so desires. It has rejected the Parliamentary Standing Committee’s observations on the matter along with all other recommendations. The background note for the cabinet on the bill records the government’s assertion that once the UIDAI programme is fully rolled out it “would only be logical to make it a necessary condition for availing public benefits and services. Without this linkage, the total investment in the UIDAI project would be infructuous.”

The amendments the cabinet affirmed on Tuesday include an explicit mention right up front in the title of the bill that the UID shall act as proof of identity and residence proof.

Through a second amendment the bill made provision for people to use the identity number through electronic channels as well for confirming identity and residence.

Another amendment permits the UIDAI to share data with authorities without explicit consent of those holding the aadhaar numbers if the Central government so mandates it under specific directions or if another law requires data sharing. The government has contended that issues of data leakage can be handled under general laws such as the Information Technology Act, 2010.

There are several other amendments but most of them are technical and legal corrections and do not alter the provisions substantially.

In fact the government has summarily rejected all the objections of the standing committee. It has backed the UID system as being robust against criticism that it did not account for leakages.

Defending its operations even as the bill remained pending in the Parliament, the government has cited a legal opinion of the Attorney General to claim that UIDAI could work through executive orders without falling foul of the Constitution.

4796 - Cabinet approves bill to give statutory status to UIDAI - Business Standard

Press Trust of India  |  New Delhi  October 8, 2013 Last Updated at 12:45 IST

Cabinet approves bill to give statutory status to UIDAI

The UIDAI, which issues 12-digit Aadhaar numbers to residents, currently operates through an executive order

The Union Cabinet today approved the National Identification Authority of India Bill that will give statutory status to the UIDAI.

Official sources said the bill, which was cleared at a meeting of the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this morning, may be tabled during the winter session of Parliament.

Besides giving statutory status to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the Bill seeks to provide legal backing to Aadhaar, which is used to disburse subsidies.

The UIDAI, which issues 12-digit Aadhaar numbers to residents, currently operates through an executive order.

The new law seeks to create a National Identification Authority of India, which will oversee implementation of the Aadhaar project. It also seeks to define the penalties in case of misuse of data collected under the project.