The Delhi High Court on Wednesday slammed the Central Government for making Aadhaar card mandatory for students from minority communities for the purpose of getting various Centrally-funded scholarships.
A Bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal issued a notice to the Centre and sought a reply on the plea which claimed the policy of making Aadhaar mandatory as “arbitrary” the scholarships such as pre-matric, post-matric and merit-cum-means scholarships are meant for students from minority communities.
“Why is this kind of instruction being issuedIJ How can you (Centre) say Aadhaar is mandatoryIJ You take notice and the concerned officer shall file the reply by September 23,” the court said.
According to a PIl filed by West Bengal-based Nasimuddin educational charitable trust, the policy was arbitrary and discriminatory and it benefits only those having Aadhaar cards.
The petition further added that the compulsory provision for all students to avail the scholarship only via online submission of the form has no rational nexus with the objective of the Post Matric Scholarship Scheme for the Minority and amounts to an unreasonable classification of equals and therefore a violation of Constitution.
The plea said that Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Zoroastrians (Parsis) have been notified as minority communities under Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992.
It claimed that the policy of “compelling” students to apply through online process “smacks of non-application of mind since the students most in need of scholarship might not have access to computer, internet or the requisite knowledge of online application”.
The petition was filed by senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan and Neha Rathi also referred to the July 14, 2016 communication of the Ministry of Minority Affairs (MoMA) which had asked the chief secretary or administrators of the states to advertise for the various national scholarships of the ministry.
It said the letter had asked the states to make Aadhar card mandatory for all students to apply for scholarships and also to apply only through the online process.
It has sought setting aside of the July 14 communication besides a direction to the government to allow students to apply for national scholarships through offline means.
The central government has been given 2 weeks time to file its reply. The matter will now be heard on September 23.