SC verdict a slap on BJP’s face: Cong

Rahul Gandhi thanks court for ‘ supporting Congress vision’

The Congress on Wednesday welcomed the Supreme Court verdict striking down certain provisions of the Aadhaar scheme, terming it a “slap” on the BJP’s face, and said it will approach the apex court again if the government tries to bring amendments to the law by bypassing Rajya Sabha.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi thanked the Supreme Court for its verdict on the Aadhaar Act, saying it was an instrument of empowerment for his party, but a “tool of oppression and surveillance” for the BJP.

“For Congress, Aadhaar was an instrument of empowerment. For the BJP, Aadhaar is a tool of oppression and surveillance. Thank you Supreme Court for supporting the Congress vision and protecting India,” he said in a tweet.

BJP president Amit Shah said, “They tried to mislead people on various grounds, including scaremongering on privacy. Today they stand exposed and defeated. The Modi government gave Aadhaar a strong legal backing and integrated it in service delivery. This ensured savings of ` 90,000 crore and benefited the poor.”

Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal said, “The passage of the law violates both the fundamental right to privacy and is a gross abuse of the Money Bill route. One important part of judgement to be noted is if in the future a Lok Sabha speaker declares a bill as Money Bill, then the court can review this and revert. We will approach a seven- judge bench to consider this verdict again as this is clearly not a Money Bill.”

In 2016, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had moved the top court, challenging its decision to treat the then Aadhaar bill as a money bill.

Mr Sibal said that the party was aware that data of crores of people may have fallen in wrong hands and the court decision will prevent information from going into private hands. He said the party may move a petition in this regard for deletion of data already in the hands of private players, saying it concerns their right to privacy.