No Need to Link Aadhaar With Mobile Phone, Bank Account Till SC Delivers Verdict on Validity

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March 31 was the previous deadline for Aadhaar linkage to avail various services and welfare schemes run by the government.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to avail various services and welfare schemes run by the government till a Constitution Bench rules on a batch of petitions challenging the validity of the Aadhaar Act.

March 31 was the previous deadline for Aadhaar linkage, but the Centre had recently hinted that it may be extended. 

 

 

A five-judge Constitution bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan is hearing a clutch of pleas seeking a stay on government's decision of mandatory linking of Aadhaar with welfare schemes, as well as essential services like banking and phone. 
 

 

The government says it has insisted on quoting Aadhaar for bank deposits, obtaining mobile phone and several other utilities to weed out benami deals and black money.
 

 

The depositor was required to submit Aadhaar number at the time of opening of account/purchasing certificates, it said.

Further, that every depositor who had not given his Aadhaar number at the time of application for such deposit was to submit his Aadhaar number on or before March 31, 2017. 

In October, the government made 12-digit Aadhaar mandatory for all small savings schemes like post office deposits, PPF, the National Savings Certificate scheme and Kisan Vikas Patra.

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[Kool_SRG]

Aadhaar Not Necessary For Bank Accounts, Phones For Now: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court's stand today means that a deadline of March 31 that was earlier declared for bank accounts and mobile phones to be linked to Aadhaar has now been extended till it decides on whether the Aadhaar Act is illegal

HIGHLIGHTS

India launched Aadhaar in 2009 to streamline welfare payments

Activists have raised concerns about privacy of Aadhaar data

In August 2017, top court said privacy is a fundamental right.

 

The Supreme Court has ruled that for now, citizens do not have to link their Aadhaar numbers to a range of services including bank accounts and mobile phones. The top court said that a biometric ID is mandatory for accessing social welfare schemes and subsidies, but till it decides on whether the government's demand for Aadhaar to be linked to private and public services is a violation of the right to privacy, the 12-digit unique number given to each citizen does not have to be linked to other services.

India launched Aadhaar, now the world's biggest biometric database, in 2009 to streamline welfare payments and reduce wastage in public spending.

Since then, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been keen to mandate the use of Aadhaar for everything from filing income tax to the registration of mobile phone numbers and booking railway tickets. Aadhaar is now mandatory for welfare, pension and employment schemes.

The top court's stand today means that a deadline of March 31 that was earlier declared for bank accounts and mobile phones to be linked to Aadhaar has now been extended till it decides on whether the Aadhaar Act is illegal.
 

A group of petitioners have asked the Supreme Court to declare the government's insistence on Aadhaar disclosure as a violation of the right to privacy.

Campaigners and technology experts have raised concerns about privacy and the safety of the data, the susceptibility of biometrics to failure, and the misuse of data for profiling or increased surveillance.

A group of petitioners have asked the Supreme Court to declare the government's insistence on Aadhaar disclosure as a violation of the right to privacy. In August 2017, the Supreme Court ruled that privacy is a fundamental right, but made it clear that the decision on the constitutional validity of Aadhaar would be taken separately.
 

 

The government says the Supreme Court, in that verdict, accepted that privacy is a fundamental right, but subject to reasonable restrictions.

Critics are worried about repeated data breaches and say the ID card links enough data to create a full profile of a person's spending habits, their friends, property they own and a trove of other information.