SIBAL TURNS PM REMARK IN DAVOS ON ITS HEAD

A law cannot be declared unconstitutional just because it can be misused, Justice Chandrachud said on Tuesday during the hearing in the Aadhaar case.

The five-judge Constitution Bench was hearing senior lawyer Kapil Sibal outline how the Unique Identification number could jeopardise privacy of citizens.

While making this argument, senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, appearing for one of the petitioners, invoked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement at the World Economic Forum meeting that “a country which controls data, controls the world”.

“I agree with the Prime Minister,” Sibal, also a senior Congress leader, said, underlining that the court’s decision to allow the Aadhaar law to succeed would “have a far-reaching effects” and “affect future generations”. Sibal is appearing for the West Bengal government.

AADHAAR HEARING

He further told the bench that Aadhaar was nothing but the Right to Information of the State and the question was can it be held as constitutional?

“The answer is ‘no’,” Sibal added.

“Digital world is far more susceptible to manipulations than the physical world,” he said, adding “no legislation can or should allow an individual’s personal data to be put at risk”.

Sibal further said that no technology was safe and, moreover, no assurance can be given that personal data of citizens would remain safe in digital space.

The bench said the constitutionality of a law has to be judged on the basis of generality of cases and not on the basis of exceptional cases.