Aadhaar Act under Supreme Court scanner: 7 issues with biometric database project
Is Aadhaar Act valid? Supreme Court sought response from the Centre on four petitions challenging constitutional validity of the Aadhaar Act passed by Parliament last year.
In Short
- The Aadhaar Act was passed by Parliament as a money bill.
- Is Aadhaar Act valid? Supreme Court sought response from the Centre.
- More than 1.15 billion people have enrolled themselves with the UIDAI.
The Supreme Court virtually asked the Centre today what the activists had been posing to the government for some time now: Is Aadhaar Act valid? The Supreme Court today sought response from the Centre on four petitions challenging constitutional validity of the Aadhaar Act passed by Parliament last year.
The Supreme Court's notice to Centre on validity of the Aadhaar Act gains significance in the view of its recent ruling by a nine-judge bench that made privacy a fundamental right of the citizens. The petitioners have challenged the Centre's move to make Aadhaar number mandatory for availing benefits of various schemes and programmes.
They have contended that Aadhaar violated fundamental right of the citizens and linking of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) number with bank accounts and mobile numbers as "illegal and unconstitutional".
AADHAAR ACT VALID?
The Aadhaar Act was passed by Parliament as a money bill. Under the provisions of the Constitution, a money bill does not mandatorily require the consent of the Rajya Sabha. If the Lok Sabha passes a money bill, the changes suggested or objections raised by the upper house cannot prevent it from becoming a law. The Speaker of the Lok Sabha is empowered to have the final say in declaring a bill as money bill.
The critics have argued that as the BJP lacked majority in the Rajya Sabha, it deliberately introduced the Aadhaar Bill as money bill. Arguments have been made that the Aadhaar Act does not qualify as a Money Bill as majority of its provisions are unrelated to government taxation and expenditure. The Supreme Court may examine if the Aadhaar Act met the criteria to be declared as money bill by the Speaker.
IS AADHAAR MANDATORY?
Under the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016, there is no binding on the citizens to have a UIDAI number authenticated by biometric database.
Besides, there is Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act empowers the Centre to make it mandatory for the purposes of availing subsidies, social welfare benefits, services etc.
The government has issued several notifications using its power under Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act to make Aadhaar number mandatory for a number of benefits and services.
LINKING OF AADHAAR WITH OTHER DOCUMENTS
Apart from the Aadhaar Act, the NDA government also got the Finance Act, 2016 passed by Parliament. The Finance Act, 2016 made linking of Aadhaar with PAN mandatory. Aadhaar was also made mandatory for filing tax returns.
The mandatory linking Aadhaar with PAN under the Finance Act was held valid by the Supreme Court in June this year. Linking Aadhaar with bank accounts, voter ID card, LPG connection card, ration card and mobile number is also mandatory.
The question under examination is if the Aadhaar Act does not make enrolment mandatory, how other laws can make it mandatory for availing benefits from the government.
AADHAAR VERSUS PRIVACY
In August this year, the Supreme Court expanded the scope of the Right to Life under Article 21 to make privacy a basic right. Aadhaar Act has been criticised for leaving too much scope for compromising privacy of an individual.
The Section 29 of the Aadhaar Act states that no biometric information will be shared for any reason whatsoever, or used for any purpose other than Aadhaar number generation and authentication. But, Section 33 allows sharing of Aadhaar biometrics "in the interest of national security".
The two sections speaking in contrasting measures have fanned fears about invasion into an individual's privacy. The Supreme Court will now have to legally examine if whether the Aadhaar Act violates the fundamental right to privacy of a citizen.
AADHAAR DATA WITH PRIVATE COMPANIES
Reliance Jio and Microsoft's Skype are two of the popular projects by the private companies that use Aadhaar database to authenticate a subscriber. Activists have raised concerns over sensitive privacy data being put at the risk of falling in the hands of private companies.
When the Aadhaar Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha, the government had stated that it confined itself "only to governmental expenditure." But, Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act allows private persons to use UID database for 'establishing the identity of an individual for any purpose'.
AADHAAR AND SNOOPING THREAT
The Aadhaar Act does not prohibit law enforcement and intelligence agencies from using the UID number to secure information from other databases across sectors including telephone records, travel details, medical details and the like.
The absence of such a prohibitory provision allows agencies to run a computer programme across databases to do profiling of people. Concerns have been raised that any designated agency may be used to harass individuals.
QUESTION MARK OVER DATA SAFETY
More than 1.15 billion people have enrolled themselves with the UIDAI. A report by the Centre for Internet Society in May said that more than 13 crore Aadhaar data were leaked, stolen or compromised. Leakage of Aadhaar data of cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni's family members became national headline earlier this year.
Further issuing Aadhaar to an individual is not fool-proof. A Right to Information (RTI) application had revealed two years ago that as of June 2015, 0.03 per cent of all Aadhaar numbers were issued to people having no pre-existing identification documents.