At a time when Aadhaar appeared to be spreading across all the spheres of the lives of citizens, the Supreme Court while upholding its constitutional validity gave a breather and laid down the rules on what’s valid and what’s not.
Section 57 of Aadhaar Act permitted the State or anyone to use Aadhaar to establish identity for any purpose. The Supreme Court has now struck down certain provisions which were seen to be beyond the original purpose of Aadhaar. Accordingly, no private entity can now ask for Aadhaar for providing any service. Even the use of Aadhaar by state authorities will be limited to only those purposes which are backed by a law.
This means that private firms including cellphone companies cannot insist for Aadhaar information. It’s not mandatory for opening of bank accounts either, nor is it required for school admission. The verdict will come as a huge stumbling block to the Narendra Modi government which was fast moving to widen the scope of Aadhaar.
Another significant change is that now even individuals too can complain about theft of Aadhaar data which according to Section 47 of the Aadhaar Act was the privilege of Government of India.
Despite the fact that the Supreme Court in its earlier ruling made Aadhaar linkages voluntary, it did not deter establishments across the nation from entrenching it in every possible exercise, be it opening of bank account or applying for a driving licence or even booking gas. From government departments to banks and cell phone operators, all services revolved around Aadhaar with citizens being literally arm-twisted and forced into submission.
While the Aadhaar fever gripped the nation, the Reserve Bank of India updated its master circular on know-your-customer (KYC) norms in April making Aadhaar mandatory for new as well as existing bank accounts. And soon banks began to cash on the notification, with a deadline being set of March 31 to all its existing customers to link their bank accounts with Aadhaar, with a rider that accounts could be frozen. That’s not all, despite all the hue and cry over security of Aadhaar data, telephone companies were on a roll using quick verification through the 12-digit numbers coupled with biometric scans, a trend first picked up by Reliance Jio.
The Goa government did not lag behind and chose to make Aadhaar enrollment in schools compulsory. Deadlines were set to complete the process and 90 per cent of the students across the state were enrolled by the end of 2017. The government’s intentions may be to link it to various schemes offered in schools like the mid-day meal and grant of scholarships, but how does the government explain of this being made mandatory when no such law was in place?
It remains to be seen how private players like cell phone companies adapt themselves from here on. Also there would be a question mark on the compulsorily collected Aadhaar data of millions of customers at the time of enrollment.
The Supreme Court verdict signals massive changes in the Aadhaar project. It comes as a reassurance to the citizens when the government and its system threatened to control every facet of a person’s life. In the words of Justice Sikri, the court has enlarged the scope of human dignity.
