The Supreme Court judgement bars mobile phone service providers and banks to seek Aadhaar authentication from customers.
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today said that the Aadhaar scheme which collects biometric data from every citizen and assigns a national identity card to them does not violate the right to privacy and is constitutionally valid.
In the 40-page judgement read out by Justice A.K. Sikri, a five-membered constitution bench of the Supreme Court said there is nothing in the Aadhaar Act that violates right to privacy of individual.
The Supreme Court constitution bench comprised Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices D.Y. Chandrachud, A.K. Sikri, A.M. Khanwilkar and Ashok Bhushan.
The Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016, or simply the Aadhaar Bill was passed in Lok Sabha in March 2016 as a money bill and subsequently became an Act after the President’s nod.
Aadhaar is mandatory for filing of income tax returns (ITR) and allotment of Permanent Account Number (PAN).SC says CBSE, NEET, UGC cannot make Aadhaar mandatory. The 12-digit number is also not compulsory for school admissions.
The Supreme Court also declared Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act as ‘unconstitutional’ and struck it down. Section 57 of Aadhaar Act talked about how private companies could also access Aadhaar data.
One of the most watched areas in the Aadhaar judgment will be Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act.Section 57 allows not only the State but also any “body corporate or person” or private entity to demand Aadhaar from citizens for the purpose of identification.
In his judgement, Justice Chandrachud had also said that seeding mobile phones with Aadhaar data poses grave danger to individual liberty.
SC says Aadhaar authentication data cannot be stored for more than six months.The constitution bench strikes down the National security exception under the Aadhaar Act.
