Government urges Supreme Court to lift stay on Aadhaar

The Centre on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court to set up a constitution bench to decide the validity of Aadhaar scheme.

The hearing of petitions challenging constitutional validity of controversial Aadhar cards witnessed sharp exchanges between the apex court and the Modi government on Tuesday as the judges fumed at some states continuing to insist on it despite its order that the cards cannot be made mandatory to avail government schemes or subsidies.

Though Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, representing the Centre, assured that he "will check" and ensure that the apex court order "is adhered to", he urged the three-judge bench to lift the stay and refer the petitions opposing the unique identity (UID) scheme to a constitution bench as they raised "substantial questions of constitutional importance" like the right to withhold personal information and intrusion into right to privacy by the state. The bench will hear the plea on Wednesday.

"We are getting information and even today I read in a newspaper that some states are still proceeding with it and are insisting furnishing of Aadhaar cards for availing government subsidies and that cannot be allowed. Kindly check and get back," Justice J Chelameswar told Rohatgi.

Making it clear that the stalemate on Aadhar cannot continue, Rohatgi submitted that 80 crore out of 120 crore Indian citizens have already been enrolled spending a whopping `6,000 crore and the government had to ensure that the huge amount does not go down the drain. "It has reached a point of no return," the AG told the court.

In its September 2013 interim order, the apex court had said the card be not made mandatory for people for availing government services and nobody should be deprived of such facilities for want of the card. Strongly defending the cards, the UPA government had said it was essential for good governance, transparent implementation of government programmes and ensure that its benefits reach only the eligible persons.

"Even the SC has recognised the scheme in the judgments involving public distribution scheme and irregularities in examinations. Since there are far-reaching consequences if the scheme is declared illegal, the issues should be decided by a constitution bench consisting at least five judges," the AG said. In its fresh application, the NDA government has told the apex court that it intends to make the Unique Identify Scheme applicable to other government schemes such as obtaining passports, PAN cards, immigration, railways, telecommunications and prison management systems. It said Aadhar cards were essential for better management of subsidies.

The stay order has had a bearing on the effective implementation of the direct benefits transfers (DBT), the application said. Financial benefits are now being transferred on the basis of bank account numbers. But it is not possible to locate the fakes, ghosts and duplications in the system.