Any plan to link social media, Aadhaar, SC asks Centre

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 13

Amid a raging controversy over attempts to link social media profiles of individuals with their Aadhaar numbers containing biometric details, the Supreme Court on Friday sought to know from the Centre if it intended to put in place any guidelines for it.

“If the Union of India is contemplating any guidelines or framework on the issue in the near future, we can give some time to you (Centre),” a Bench headed by Justice Deepak Gupta said, adding, “At this stage, we do not know whether we can decide this issue or the high court will decide.”

However, the Bench — which is seized of a petition filed by Facebook seeking transfer of cases pending on the controversial issue before high courts of Madras, Bombay and Madhya Pradesh to the top court — said the matter needed to be decided at the earliest. It clarified that it would not go into the merits of the issue and would only decide the plea for transfer of cases.

On behalf of the Centre, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said it has no objection to transfer the cases even as he pointed out that considerable judicial time has been spent by high courts on the issue.

Appearing for Facebook and WhatsApp, senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Kapil Sibal said they had filed two appeals against Madras High Court orders.

The Bench said it would take up the appeals and the transfer petition on September 24.

The SC had on August 20 agreed to hear Facebook’s plea for transfer of cases pending before various high courts on linking of social media profiles of individuals with their Aadhaar numbers. It had issued notices to the Centre, Google, Twitter, YouTube and others asking them to respond by September 13.