Confusion...

The confusion over the deletion is about whether a minority judgment can be seen as an extension of the majority judgment when the bench concurs on a particular aspect, and whether quashing of mobile linkage with Aadhaar automatically means deleting all Aadhaar data collected for this.

There are votaries for all three outcomes.

Minority judgment is binding law: Prasanna S

“The judgment is clear. Just because it’s a minority judgment, it does not stop being a Supreme Court judgment,” said Prasanna S, a lawyer who has assisted petitioners in the Aadhaar case.

You can find what is law declared also in a minority judgment, and that principle has been set in stone in Indian jurisprudence since the 1950s,” said Prasanna S., a lawyer who has assisted petitioners in the Aadhaar case.

“In this case as far as telecom linking is concerned, we saw that all five were in concurrence that it was unconstitutional. One judge says you need to delete the data. Therefore, that direction is to be read as the view of the court,” said Prasanna.

“Minority judgments of the highest court of the land cannot by any stretch be treated as mere academic writing. There are several high court and Supreme Court precedents that have treated declarations and directions of a minority judgment to be binding law - and with good reason,” he added.

The judgment is unclear, will need clarification: There is no positive obligation on telcos to delete: Zoheb Hosain

“There is no positive obligation on telcos to delete the Aadhaar data. If the court has intended for the data to be deleted, then there would be suitable directions to that effect. Usually there is something known as judicial conference. There is a presumption that judges have read each other’s judgment even though they may not say so explicitly. And under this presumption, if the majority judgment has not reiterated the views of Justice Chandrachud, then it can be presumed that directions of the minority view cannot be construed as the law declared by the SC,” Zoheb Hosain, a lawyer for UIDAI in the SC case, said.

Deletion only on request: Govt and Industry bodies

The Unique Identification Authority Of India (UIDAI), the department of telecommunications and the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), an