‘ Aadhaar akin to digital dictatorship’
Nothing wrong in insistence of Aadhaar for social security benefits
◗ Let us not be carried away by surveillance. We need to see which are the areas of concern: SC judge
The Supreme Court on Tuesday observed that there was nothing wrong in the insistence of Aadhaar for awailing social security benefits as long as the data was used for this purpose.
A five- judge Constitution Bench comprising the Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A. K. Sikri, A. M. Kanwilkar, D. Y. Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan made this oral observation during the course of hearing of a batch of petitions challenging the validity of Aadhaar programme. Senior counsel Shyam Divan for the petitioners submitted that Aadhaar programme was akin to “digital dictatorship” as authentication of biometric data was a pre- condition for extending benefits which has resulted in “exclusion” of many beneficiaries whose data did not match.
When he said that Aadhaar has now been made mandatory for over 140 schemes, Justice Chandrachud drew the attention of Mr Divan and said “this is the perfect aspect of Aadhaar and even the World Bank has said that the Aadhaar system was quite effective in India though there might be some aberrations here and there. Let us not be carried away by surveillance. We need to see which are the areas of concern,” the judge added.
Mr Divan reiterated that Aadhaar enrolment has been without adequate verification and in many instances the Centre itself has stated that the enrolment has been over 110% of the recorded population in many states giving concerns as to fraud within the system. People are denied access to basic needs such as food and adequate nutrition; midday meals in school; rehabilitation benefits due to the rescued bonded labourers.
He said there are no safeguards or penalties for obtaining personal information and said that the biometric data and iris scan that was being collected for the issuance of Aadhaar card violated the fundamental right to privacy of the citizens. Personal data was not protected, and was vulnerable to exposure and misuse.