Sir,
The Supreme Court has laid down important checks and balances to ensure that Aadhaar is used only for the genuine purposes for which it was created – for targeted delivery of financial benefits for the poor and the underprivileged.
The Modi Government was trying to widen the original scope of Aadhaar by making it mandatory in a variety of activities and transactions for which it was never intended. The apex court has put a stop to such brazen attempts to use it as an instrument in the hands of the Government to gain control over the lives of all citizens. In a nutshell, this is the substance of the 4-1 majority judgment of the five-judge Constitutional Bench.
Also very explicit in the majority judgment are the strictures against selling the sensitive private information about citizens to third parties as well as against allowing private business houses and service providers to demand compulsory Aadhaar verification. In other words, the court verdict has effectively de-fanged the ferocious tiger that Aadhaar was becoming. The clearest proof of this is the prohibition of Aadhaar-linkage being made mandatory for bank accounts, mobile phone connections, appearing in public examinations, etc. An entire Section of the Aadhaar Act has been struck down by majority judgment.
What the learned judges have said in their majority verdict is clear: Aadhaar is valid but cannot be made mandatory except for welfare schemes. The apprehensions of those opposing Aadhaar are also valid – excessive intrusion into the privacy of citizens, which could have the tendency to create a totalitarian state, impinging upon democratic and constitutional values.
Raman Swamy
on e-mail
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