"No person should be denied any benefits or "suffer" for
not having the Aadhaar cards issued by Unique Identification Authority of
India."
Clearing all doubts about the validity of
Aadhaar card to avail of government subsidies, the Supreme Court on Monday
confirmed that the Aadhar card is not compulsory, and further, officials who
insist on them will be taken to task.
A fuming Supreme Court issued a stern warning
to the government on learning that many government authorities still insist on
Aadhaar for providing government subsidies and basic services to ordinary
citizens.
A Bench of Justices J. Chelameswar, S.A. Bobde
and C. Nagappan clarified that demands made by officials for Aadhaar card is in
clear violation of the Supreme Court's interim order of September 23,
2013.
In the 2013 order, the apex court had directed
that “no person should suffer for not getting the Aadhaar card, inspite of the
fact that some authority had issued a circular making it mandatory”.
The court's summary dismissal of Aadhaar
card's validity comes at a time when over 750 million Aadhar numbers have
already been generated.
“Aadhaar is being insisted upon by various
authorities. We do not want to go into specific instances. We expect the Union
of India and all the States to adhere to the order dated September 23, 2013. We
will take the officers concerned to task if any order comes on record making it
(Aadhaar) mandatory,” Justice Chelameswar observed.
The court was hearing a batch of petitions
challenging the Aadhaar scheme as an encroachment into the public's right to
privacy.
“It is a matter of great public importance.
The issue has serious implication in terms of Constitution. Notwithstanding the
court's order, there is insistence for Aadhaar. There is complete apathy on the
part of officials,” senior advocate Gopal Subramanium, representing one of the
petitioners and Bangalore-resident, Mathew Thomas, submitted.
As an example, he referred to NCT government's
notification on March 9, 2015, insisting that couples require Aadhaar cards to
get their marriage registered under the Special Marriage Act.
In fact, senior advocate Anil Divan pointed
out that the Bombay High Court Registrar had recently received an official
communication asking him to make Aadhar mandatory for disbursal of salary to
staff and even judges.
“You better advise the States, if the
officials insist, it would have consequences. We will take them to task. This
is absolutely not right,” Justice Chelameswar observed.
Mr. Subramanium argued that collection of
personal data of residents of India under the Aadhaar scheme is not exactly a
government activity, but outsourced to private contractors.
“On the surface it (Aadhaar) is a simple
document of identity, but it has linkages by means of iris scans and biometric
details. God forbid if identities are exchanged or mistaken. the Executive's
scheme involves private partners. Who are these private partners?” Mr.
Subramanium submitted.
Submitting how the ordinary man is now prone
to the perils of identity fraud, Mr. Subramanium said the “Sovereign State also
has the duty to protect its citizens, to protect his identity, his personal
information against possible misuse”.
Source : http://www.thehindu.com/
