The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought replies from 11 states on why the Aadhaar card, being prepared by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), be made compulsory for a range of formalities, including disbursal of salaries and provident fund, school and college admissions, marriage registration, LPG cylinders and connections among other public services.
Aadhaar is one of the main schemes of the UPA government and is headed by Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani.
A bench led by Justice B S Chauhan sought states’ views to ascertain their understanding of the nature of the UID scheme and whether they have also linked Aadhaar cards to such services. The court will take up the matter for further hearing on December 10.
Challenging constitutional validity of Aadhaar card, Senior counsel Anil Divan, appearing for petitioner Justice KS Puttaswamy, a retired judge of the Karnataka High Court, raised doubts over the collection of personal data by the government and argued that it violated the citizen’s fundamental right to privacy.
?The scheme is complete infraction of Fundamental Rights under Articles 14 and 21. The government claims that the scheme is voluntary but it is not so,? the PIL filed through counsel Ankit Goel stated.