Aadhaar can’t stop bank fraud, says SC

NEW DELHI: The Aadhaar case in the Supreme Court saw substantive arguments around the applicability of Aadhaar to everything other than the government’s welfare schemes, with Attorney General KK Venugopal, appearing for the state, pitching its ability to prevent bank frauds, illegal financial transactions, and the misuse of telecommunication networks by terrorists, and the judges questioning its ability to do this.

Such back-and-forth play between the counsel and the bench doesn’t necessarily indicate the direction of the court’s thinking. Nor do the bench’s observations.

Still, the court’s observations, questioning the merits of linking Aadhaar numbers to bank accounts and mobile phone numbers are interesting.

Originally envisaged as a tool to ensure the efficient targeting of welfare schemes, Aadhaar has since become the one number that links everything from Permanent Account Numbers of the income tax department to mobile phone numbers to mutual fund folios and to bank accounts.

Aadhaar won’t stop bank frauds, the Supreme Court observed on Thursday, after the government argued that it would help detect scams.

“A bank fraud does not take place because of multiple identities. A loan is given by a banker and he knows who the borrower is. A fraud can take place if only the banker is hand-in-glove with the customer,” Justice AK Sikri said when Venugopal argued that (one of the uses of ) Aadhaar was to prevent bank fraud.

The law officer was addressing a constitution bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, which is hearing petitions against the Aadhaar Act.