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Supreme Court Upholds Constitutional Validity Of Aadhaar With Riders

Supreme Court Upholds Constitutional Validity Of Aadhaar With Riders
(Source: BloombergQuint) 
7 years ago
Supreme Court upheld the validity of Aadhaar, but imposed some restrictions on its use. Court said the program is not mandatory for bank accounts, SIMs. 

You cannot be a complete fintech as now it will be more physical and paper-based verification since you can’t authenticate them digitally. A lot of lending platforms will get impacted because the cost is going to go through the roof, and it will be difficult to onboard new customers. You can’t afford Rs 200-500 verification cost for a loan of Rs 20,000.
Rajiv Raj, Co-Founder, CreditVidya

While upholding Aadhaar in principle, the court has come back to the principle that Aadhaar should be meant for giving benefits to the common man. The second part is to ensure that Aadhaar should not be commercially exploited and not become a vehicle for greater governmental control. It is a balancing act.
Sidharth Luthra, Senior Advocate

The fifth judge, Justice Ashok Bhushan, has also concurred with the Majority judgment in the Aadhaar verdict.

Data collected by telecom companies through Aadhaar linkage should be deleted, says Justice Chandrachud in his dissenting judgment.

Aadhaar: A Quick Summary Of The Supreme Court Majority Order

The mandatory linking of bank accounts with Aadhaar has also been quashed, Justice Sikri said in his order.

The DoT notification of linking SIM cards with Aadhaar has been held unconstitutional, Justice Sikri said as a part of the majority judgment.

The apex court has held that the Aadhaar Act could be passed as a money bill.

Petitioners had argued that provisions of the Aadhaar Act which do not fulfill the criteria of a money bill cannot be removed once the bill has been passed. Hence, the entire law needs to be struck down.

Educational boards such as CBSE and UGC who have made the need for Aadhaar mandatory, cannot do so, Justice Sikri said.

  • For enrollment of children in Aadhaar it would be essential to have consent of parents. While attaining age of 18, they will be given of choice to exit.
  • As far as admission into school is concerned, requirement of Aadhaar is not mandatory.

Section 57: Act not to prevent use of Aadhaar number for other purposes under law. “Nothing contained in this Act shall prevent the use of Aadhaar number for establishing the identity of an individual for any purpose, whether by the State or any body corporate or person, pursuant to any law, for the time being in force, or any contract to this effect:…”

Note: Section 33(1) says the person whose data is sought to be released will be given an opportunity of hearing before an order of information disclosure is passed.

Court has come to conclusion that minimal demographic and biometric data is collected.
Justice Sikri

  • The state is constitutionally bound to provide subsidies, benefits and services to its citizens.
  • Aadhaar makes the delivery of these conditional on citizens parting with their biometric and demographic information. The petitioners challenged Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act on this ground which empowers the government to seek Aadhaar as a means of identity for delivery of subsidies.
  • The UIDAI has the power to cancel the Aadhaar number anytime with the citizen having almost no redressal mechanism. That deprives him of services for which he or she would need an Aadhaar number.
  • Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act gives the government and private companies the authority to seek Aadhaar for “establishing the identity of an individual for any purpose”. That makes it capable of turning into a tool for a surveillance state.
  • There is no concept of consent in the Aadhaar Act and it is only “illusory” as without Aadhaar authentication a person will be denied benefits, services and subsidies.
  • Aadhaar fundamentally violates the balance between the citizen and the state.
  • The Supreme Court judgment in Section 139AA of Income Tax Act, which mandates linking of Aadhaar to the Permanent Account Number, needs to be re-looked after the Right to Privacy verdict.
  • There are strict criteria of what will qualify as a money bill, which bypasses the scrutiny of the Rajya Sabha as well as takes away the power of the President to send the bill back to Parliament for reconsideration.
  • Provisions of the Aadhaar Act which do not fulfil the criteria of a money bill cannot be removed once the bill has been passed. Hence, the entire law needs to be struck down.

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