‘ Aadhaar will lead to an Orwellian state’

Right to privacy of citizens in sharing Aadhaar details and national interest should be balanced, says SC

The Supreme Court on Wednesday observed that right to privacy of citizens in sharing Aadhaar details and national interest should be balanced.

A five judge Constitution Bench made this observation during the course of hearing of a batch of petitions questioning the validity of Aadhaar card even as senior counsel Shyam Divan argued that Aadhaar programme will lead to a police raj.

In particular, Justice Chandrachud told the counsel “we live in times of terrorism, money laundering. One needs to balance out the right to privacy.” Mr Divan argued that Aaadhaar was nothing but electronic mapping of citizens and nowhere in the world in any democracy it happens. He said individuals are free to lead a life without constant gaze of the government.

Justice Chandrachud said that when private operators like Google tap the same types of information, Mr Divan replied that Google is not a state. “Here Government tracks you in real- time and it becomes a police state and our Constitution doesn’t allow this,” he added. Justice Chandrachud shot back, “Can we not make distinction of data collection and utilisation, and say the data collected shall not be used for purposes other than collected.”

Senior Lawyer Kapil Sibal, appearing for one of the petitioners told the Bench “Big brother is constantly watching us. Why should the big brother have that data? He may use it and by the time individuals come to court, years will pass.”

Mr Divan argued that the project creates the architecture for pervasive surveillance and unless the project is stopped, it will lead to an Orwellian state where every move of the citizen is constantly tracked and recorded by the state.