Aadhaar empowers state to cause civil deaths: Petitioners

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 17 

The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought to know if the state can have a countervailing interest in collecting biometric details of citizens to discharge its obligations even as petitioners against Aadhaar termed it a switch that could be used by the government to cause civil death of an individual.

On the first day of hearing of petitions challenging the validity of Aadhaar Act and related 139 government notifications, a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra wanted to know the fate of biometric data collected before the enactment of Aadhaar Act, 2016, if the petitioners succeeded. 

Commencing his arguments, senior counsel Shyam Divan gave an elaborate background of the case, explaining the origin of Aadhaar and the judicial decisions that expressly said it couldn’t be made mandatory.

“The state is empowered with a ‘switch’ by which it can cause the civil death of an individual. Where every basic facility is linked to Aadhaar and one cannot live in society without an Aadhaar number, the switching off of Aadhaar completely destroys the individual,” Divan told the Bench, which also included Justices AK Sikri, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan.

Contending that profiling enables the state to stifle dissent and influence political decision-making, Divan said, “Several state governments have started using the Aadhaar platform to build profiles of residents that is reminiscent of totalitarian regimes.”

There should be an “opt out option” as there was no consent or even no counselling at the time of enrolment, said Divan, who is representing former Karnataka High Court judge Justice KS Puttaswamy, activists Aruna Roy, Shantha Sinha and veteran CPM leader VS Achuthanandan, besides other petitioners.

The Bench, which has already extended till March 31 the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar with various services, sought to know if the state could have a countervailing interest in collecting biometric details of citizens to discharge its obligations. “If you are depending on social welfare benefits, the state equally has countervailing interests to ensure that benefits reach the right people,” said Justice Chandrachud. 

Divan said the architecture of Aadhaar was such that throughout the day there will be an electronic trail of one’s movements left with the Central government. “Why should government know my movement?” he asked. 

Divan sought to highlight national and financial security risks involved, saying, if someone hacked it, there would be a huge problem. 

‘Aadhaar an electronic leash’