Aadhaar card may remain non-compulsory, for now

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, July 22

Aadhaar card may continue to remain non-compulsory for quite some time for getting subsidy or official documents as the Supreme Court today said it wanted to send the PILs against the scheme to a Constitution Bench of not less than five judges.

“We are inclined to refer the case to a larger Bench,” a three-member Bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar said accepting the Centre’s plea.

The Bench told senior counsel Shyam Divan, representing one of the PIL petitioners, that he should not have any objection to the move as he had already obtained interim relief through an apex court order asking the Centre and the states not to insist on Aadhaar card for providing subsidies on foodgrain, kerosene and cooking gas, work under the employment guarantee law or documents pertaining to property, marriage and vehicles.

Divan, however, said he wanted to argue against the plea for a larger Bench in great detail in order to convince the apex court. Accepting his plea, it allowed him to continue his contentions.

Arguing for the Centre, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi had pleaded that sending the matter to a larger Bench was necessary as different SC Benches had delivered conflicting judgments on the status of privacy—whether it was a fundamental right under the Constitution or not.

The PIL petitioners against Aadhaar have pleaded that collection of people’s biometrics such as fingerprints and iris patterns for issuing Aadhaar cards amounted to invasion of  their fundamental right to privacy, requiring constitutional interpretation.

The PILs would, however, be rendered irrelevant if the government managed to get the law on Aadhaar passed in Parliament. At present, the card is issued on the basis of an executive order.