Court interim Aadhaar ruling today

After two hours of hearing, a 5-judge Constitution Bench on Thursday reserved its order for Friday, the last working day of the year, on the stay sought against the government's move to make Aadhaar mandatory for bank accounts, mobile numbers and various other schemes.

Attorney General K K Venugopal offered on the Centre's behalf to extend the mandatory linking in all cases to March 31, but with a rider that Aadhaar shall remain mandatory for opening of the new bank accounts.

The Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra declared that it will pronounce an interim order on Friday and start the final hearing from January 17 on all pleas challenging the validity of Aadhaar and its mandatory linkage from January 17.

The court was told that Aadhaar cannot be made mandatory since it violates the Right to Privacy that it

has recognised as a fundamental right. Moreover, the parties pleaded that the large-scale sharing of biometric data like iris scans and fingerprints is liable to be misused.

During the morning session, senior advocate Shyam Divan pointed out that the Apex Court had allowed mandatory use of Aadhaar only in the case of six schemes, but the government made it compulsory for 139 schemes, which amounted to contempt of the order that had specified it will be voluntary. Divan said the government even got a law passed by Parliament last year to empower itself to make the 12-digit number mandatory for availing even simple services like train and bus travel; also, it kept expanding Aadhaar's compulsory use.

He pointed out that Aadhaar has been made mandatory for board examinations, scholarships and higher education. Even HIV-positive patients are denied treatment if they do not have Aadhaar. The Bench, however, restrained him when he went on to assert that "if the orders of the Supreme Court are not obeyed by the government, then it is a sad day.’’ "Let us not go by rhetoric and hyperbole; let us go by the law," the court said.