R Sedhuraman
Legal Correspondent
New Delhi, October 10
Chief Justice HL Dattu has set up a
five-member Bench headed by him to go into the constitutional validity and
usage of Aadhaar. The other members of the Bench are: Justices MY Eqbal, C
Nagappan, Arun Mishra and Amitava Roy.
The Constitution Bench will have its
first sitting on October 14 to take up a batch of PILs by retired high court
judge KS Puttaswamy and others challenging the collection of people’s
biometrics such as finger prints and iris for enrolling them under the Aadhaar
scheme.
It will also consider pleas for
enlarging the scope of Aadhaar for using the card for payment of wages under
the employment guarantee scheme (MNREGA) and old age pension, issue of SIM
cards to cell phone users and share certificates to investors and for banking
and insurance transactions.
The government, statutory bodies and
their agencies have contended that wider use of Aadhaar was necessary to fight
black money and terrorism and prevent the misuse and diversion of huge funds
earmarked for MNREGA and other welfare schemes meant for the poor and the
middle class.
On the other hand, the petitioners
have pleaded that people could not be forced to disclose their biometrics that
too to private companies, some of them based abroad. The companies were
selected by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), set up by an
official order without any statutory backing, for the Aadhaar scheme.
Collection of biometrics without
explaining to the people about its possible misuse to snoop on them and other
consequences was in violation their fundamental right to privacy, they have
pleaded.Rejecting this contention, the government maintained that privacy was
not a fundamental right and none of the welfare schemes meant could be
successful unless it was allowed to use Aadhaar for their implementation.
The unique number on each Aadhaar
card and the biometrics data would eliminate bogus and ghost claimants to
benefits under the welfare schemes, the government has contended.
On August 11, a 3-member Bench
headed by Justice J Chelameswar passed an interim order restricting the use of
Aadhaar for providing subsidy on foodgrains and kerosene sold through the
public distribution system (PDS) and on cooking gas (LPG). This Bench
subsequently rejected pleas for enlarging the scope of Aadhaar, observing that
it was not in a position to entertain pleas for relaxing the curbs as it had
already referred the PILs to a larger Bench for deciding the card’s on the
basis of right to privacy.
Upon this,
the government and others approached the CJI pleading for immediate formation
of the Constitution Bench to at least go into the plea for easing the curbs on
an urgent basis in the interest of 96 crore people who had opted for Aadhaar.
