On Wednesday, a five judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra began the much awaited hearing regarding the constitutional validity of Aadhaar cards. After the Government made the Aadhaar card mandatory to avail various services multiple petitions were filed. A total of 27 petitions were filed at the Supreme Court challenging the 12 digit identity number that is based on biometric information.
This landmark hearing comes nearly five months after a nine judge bench declared that Indians have the fundamental right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution. However, the nine judge bench did not discuss the validity of Aadhaar cards and decided to leave it up to a five judge bench. But it directed the Government to set up a foolproof data protection for the identification cards.
Karnataka High Court Judge K. Puttaswamy and Social Activist Aruna Roy lead the petitioners who oppose the Aadhaar cards on the basis of privacy and security violations. The petitioners argue that the information for Aadhaar cards are taken by private contractors and NGOs hired by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) without any protection making it easier to misuse. They further stated the biometric identification denoted for UID like iris scan and fingerprints are faulty and can be misused. The petitioners are also fighting the order to link mobile numbers and bank accounts to the Aadhaar card.
On the 15th of December, a Constitutional Bench headed by CJI Misra passed a judicial order that extended the date for linking the Aadhaar card to mobile numbers from the 8th of February to the 31st of March 2018.
Yesterday, the CJI met with Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Vikas Singh to discuss the ongoing issue regarding the allocation of work. This comes after the top four judges under the CJI made an unprecedented move by conducted a sudden press conference. At the conference, the judges stated the judicial system was out of balance and that CJI Misra was taking advantage of his position.
