UID number no Aadhaar for social welfare schemes

limiting the use of Aadhaar card only to the Public Distribution System (PDS) and lPG supply, the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday asked the Centre and States not to make Aadhaar number a necessary condition to avail the benefit of any social welfare schemes of the Government.

This order came after a three-judge Bench hearing the challenge to Aadhaar scheme decided to refer the matter to a Constitution Bench to first determine whether citizens can claim a valid right to privacy under the Constitution. The Bench felt that the issue of privacy had to be first settled as there were “unresolved apparent contradictions” in past judgements of this court where an eight-judge and a six-judge Bench of SC in 1954 and 1963 declared that privacy was not a fundamental right.

 Since in many other cases the SC Benches of smaller composition contradicted the above decisions, the present Bench felt there has to be finality to this issue of privacy. Over 90 per cent of adults in India are covered by Aadhaar and this order will not come in the way of the remaining 10 per cent adult population to obtain Aadhaar number, the Bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar clarified. Any person who has an Aadhaar card will be free to use it as an identity proof but as far as any Government scheme or social welfare benefit is concerned, no Government can now insist on providing the benefit to an Aadhaar card holder alone. 

The SC even restrained the Centre from sharing personal data collected for the purpose of Aadhaar card with any person or agency unless directed by the court for criminal investigation. “The production of an Aadhaar card will not be the condition for obtaining any benefits otherwise due to a citizen,” said the Bench, also comprising Justices Sharad Bobde and C Nagappan.

The SC directed the Centre to give wide publicity to its order to ensure that any citizen not having an Aadhaar card is put to trouble by any bank, public body or Government agency for availing benefit under any service or scheme.The decision has come as a huge setback for the Narendra Modi Government which cannot link the Aadhaar scheme with its social benefit programmes and for achieving the goal of Digital India. The Centre had opposed this interim order and said that huge cost had gone into providing the beneficial scheme to almost all citizens in the country. 

Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi informed the SC that it was not proper to stop the scheme at a stage where it was close to achieving 100 per cent coverage. Although he succeeded to refer the petitions challenging Aadhaar scheme to a Constitution Bench on the question whether right to privacy exists in the Constitution, Rohatgi felt that such an order by the court will be “retrograde” and insisted on extending the interim order even to rural employment guarantee scheme (MNREGA), scholarship scheme and pension scheme. “Our idea is to empower people by providing teaming millions in the country with an identity and not just carry the card in their pockets,” he said.

 The Bench agreed to carve out an exception for PDS and lPG as it concerned basic needs of food and cooking fuel. About the remaining benefits requested by the A-G, the Bench said it could wait till the larger Bench decided on the issue.

Rohatgi argued that the purpose of introducing Aadhaar was to end corruption and ensure benefits do not flow to bogus ration card holders and “ghost” beneficiaries under MNREGA. But the petitioners who challenged Aadhaar claimed that data collected was unprotected, liable to misuse as it was collected by a private agency under no law or Government supervision. It demanded a complete freeze on further enrollment. As a response to the argument that Aadhaar will help track bogus PDS beneficiaries, senior advocate Anil Divan showed how bogus Aadhaar cards were made for the deity Hanuman and a dog.