SC, DoT, Trai blamed by UIDAI

The Supreme Court on Wednesday raised questions over the government’s decision ordering mandatory seeding of mobile numbers with Aadhaar and said its earlier order on mandatory authentication of the users was used as a “tool”.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, hearing a clutch of petitions challenging Aadhaar and its enabling 2016 law, said its order on a PIL filed by ‘Lokniti Foundation’ had said that mobile users needed to be verified in the interest of national security.

“In fact there was no such direction from the Supreme Court, but you took it and used it as a tool to make Aadhaar mandatory for mobile users,” the Bench, also comprising Justices A.K. Sikri, A.M. Khanwilkar, D.Y. Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, said.

Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), said the department of telecommunication notification talked about re-verification of mobile numbers by using e-KYC process and the Telegraph Act gave “exclusive power to central government to decide license conditions” of service providers.

Dwivedi said the direction to seed mobile with Aadhaar was taken in pursuance of Trai’s recommendation.

COUNSEL RAKESH Dwivedi appearing for the UIDAI reiterated that the apprehension of surveillance of citizens or that the data is being shared by the collecting entities are misplaced.

Sanji Ram and Vishal Jagotra, two accused in the Kathua rape incident strongly opposed in the SC the plea for transfer of the trial from Kathua court to a court in Chandigarh

The father of the eight-year victim girl had sought shifting of the case to ensure free and free trial.

They claimed they are falsely implicated in the case as accused 1 and 5