In a respite to the government, the Supreme Court on Thursday extended use the Aadhaar card on voluntary basis for welfare schemes like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana as also the Employees’ Provident Fund and pension schemes. This is in addition to the two schemes — the public distribution system (foodgrain and kerosene) and LPG — where the use of Aadhaar on a voluntary basis for cash transfer to beneficiary bank accounts was allowed by the apex court in its August 11 interim order.
A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu, however, made it clear that the government should “strictly follow all the earlier orders”.
“We make it clear that the Aadhaar card scheme is purely on voluntary basis and not made mandatory,” the bench said, while referring the issue — whether privacy is a fundamental right — to a larger bench of nine or 11 judges. It also said that various applications filed by state governments, the Reserve Bank of India, Sebi, Irda, Trai, Pension Fund Regulatory Authority and others in this regard will also be heard by the larger bench.
However, the bench rejected attorney general Mukul Rohatgi’s request that the Aadhaar card should be also allowed for opening bank accounts.
The Centre had told the apex court that privacy was not a fundamental right while contesting a bunch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar scheme on the ground of violation of citizens’ right to privacy.
Rohatgi had argued that privacy can be compromised if the benefits mandate it and the government had saved crores in false subsidies by introducing the card. As of now, 92 crore people have been allotted Aadhaar numbers.
The apex court modified the order on a batch of applications by the central government and its various agencies seeking modification of August 11 order by which the use of Aadhaar card was limited for getting foodgrain and kerosene under PDS and for LPG. The bench repeatedly asked the petitioners why the Aadhaar card cannot be used voluntarily for other social welfare schemes when it had been already allowed for the two schemes.
Representing petitioners justice KS Puttaswamy, Nagarik Chetna Manch, an NGO, social activist Aruna Roy and others, senior counsel Shyam Diwan, Soli Sorabjee and Gopal Subramanium opposed any modification in August 11 order, saying “it is akin to revisiting the order, akin to review order and the best person to do so are the same three-judge bench which had passed the earlier order after hearing arguments for more than 10 days”.
The judges immediately observed that “we are also responsible. We will not be that irresponsible to tinker with the orders of this court.”
In the 2013 order, the apex court had directed that “no person should suffer for not getting the Aadhaar card, in spite of the fact that some authority had issued a circular making it mandatory”.
