Crucial Supreme Court Decision on Aadhaar Card Today

The Constitutional bench is now entrusted with deciding on the scope and utility of Aadhar, over and above determining the existence of privacy as a fundamental right.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday referred plea of various government authorities and financial institution for clarification of interim order to a larger bench in connection to the Aadhar card matter.

The present Supreme Court ruling however, can be considered a victory for privacy advocates who have been attacking Aadhaar over privacy concerns since the UID uses biometric data which will be available to various authorities and organisations if it is extended for other services. It said that the government would not use Aadhaar card for any other scheme.

Markets regulator SEBI, in its application, has urged the court to modify its order to permit it to use Aadhaar number in the securities market for the confirmation of address of the brokers and intermediaries under the know-your-customer (KYC) scheme.

Meanwhile, Karnataka has made a decision to join in the legal fight to defend it. Gujarat and Jharkhand, both BJP ruled states, have already joined the Centre and the RBI, among other central bodies, to appeal against the Supreme Court’s verdict restricting the use of Aadhaar.

Similarly, the RBI has sought the modification of the order saying that if customers voluntarily share their Aadhaar number, then they may be permitted to do so for the goal of banking transactions.

The South Carolina chose to refer the case to a larger bench to decide the question posed by Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi whether citizens had a fundamental right to privacy under the Constitution.

The Centre has argued that more than 90 crore people in India hold Aadhar card, which could be a one window identification mechanism to ensure the benefits of social welfare schemes reaching the target group.

The Court, earlier in the month asked the Centre to strictly comply with the order and reminded it that the mandatory nature of aadhar is applicable only to LPG and PDS schemes.

A three-judge bench of Justices J. Chelameswar, S.A. Bobde and C. Nagappan, that reserved orders on Tuesday, declined to pass orders on Wednesday on applications seeking modification/clarification of the interim order restraining the authorities from insisting on Aadhaar for benefits from the government.