Aadhaar hearing: SC judge recalls ailing mother facing problems to get pension

Supreme Court judge, Justice D Y Chandrachud, the son of late Chief Justice of India Y V Chandrachud, on Wednesday recalled a personal experience during the hearing on the Aadhaar issue that his mother, who was suffering for Alzheimer's disease, had faced difficulty in authentication to get pension.

Justice Chandrachud is part of the 5-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, which is hearing a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar scheme and its enabling law of 2016.

During the hearing, the bench, also comprising Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, said Aadhaar authentication failures could create problems for those in need and some solution has to be found to address the issue, reports PTI.

Recalling his experience, Justice Chandrachud said "my mother, who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease was entitled to family pension being the wife of a former Chief Justice of India (late Justice Y V Chandrachud).

"She had to give a thumb impression for authentication. I recall, every month the bank manager or his representative would come home and affix her thumb print on certain documents and only then could she get the pension", Justice Chandrachud said.

"So it (authentication) is a serious issue. It's not largesse. It is not charity...we have to find answers for these problems," he said, adding that there was a class of needy people who may not get the benefits due to authentication failures.

The apex court judge was responding to the arguments of senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for former High Court judge Justice (Retd) K S Puttaswamy, who said a 90-year-old woman suffering from various ailments is being threatened that her bank account could be closed for non-authentication by Aadhaar.

Divan said that through that bank account, she was getting her pension and she uses that money for her treatment as she has no one else to look after her.

"There are numerous cases where the Aadhaar authentication failures of the elderly, people suffering from any disease or physical disability, leads to denial of benefits to those otherwise entitled to it," Diwan said.

He said in many villages, young people have now migrated to cities or nearby towns and only the elderly residing there were dependent on their pension or other grants. But due to Aadhaar authentication failure, they were not getting the benefits.