Aadhaar Card is Not Mandatory- Supreme Court Gives the Verdict

Supreme Court of India has given the verdict on Aadhaar. The judgment says that the Aadhaar card is valid in constitutional means. But the linkage to various services is declared non-mandatory for various services.

This implies you never again need to interface your bank account or mobile number with the Aadhaar number. It is additionally no longer necessary to give Aadhaar number for school confirmations. The Supreme Court said that having the Aadhaar details does not breach the right to privacy. Aadhaar must be connected with the welfare plans and government appropriations to avail those facilities. The Supreme Court also stated that when youngsters progress toward becoming grown-ups, they can quit from these facilities.

More than one billion Indians have effectively agreed to accept Aadhaar. The Unique Identification Number was made necessary for accounts in banks, PAN cards, cellphone administrations, visa as well as driving licenses. It was in general used as a way of verification of personality and residential address. The solicitors that tested the established legitimacy of the Aadhaar card were bantering in court on essential issues of security, reconnaissance, information insurance, assent, and authoritative procedures.

In the notable judgment, the Supreme Court maintained the legitimacy of the Aadhaar Act and plan by a majority vote of 4:1. The judgment was articulated by a panel of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AK Sikri, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud, and Ashok Bhushan. The one person who was not in favor of the decision was Justice Chandrachud. He had different perspectives that contradicted from the dominant part. He said in one of his statements, “Allowing private institutions to use Aadhaar will lead to profiling which could be used in ascertaining political views etc. of citizens. Mandating Aadhaar for benefits and services under Section 7 would lead to a situation in which citizens will not be able to live without Aadhaar. Hence, Section 7 arbitrary and unconstitutional."

Justice AK Sikri stated that they have taken the facts of public interest largely as against the "compelling public state interest" test. Human dignity is the ground exposited in the judgment. There are also added discussions which are not only about the dignity in reference to the individual but it refers to the restoration of the dignity of the society as a whole.  Question on whether strict examination or simply reasonable and sensible standard to be received in the testing of dependability of laws.

Clarifying the Aadhaar verdict

The linking of PAN and Aadhaar

For income tax return filing, Aadhaar is considered mandatory. In this case, thus it is necessary to link the PAN with the Aadhaar number. As per the reset deadline, the last date of linking Aadhaar and PAN is 31st March 2019.

The linking with Aadhaar-Welfare Schemes

The linking of Aadhaar is still applicable to the schemes initiated by the government. It also includes the subsidies. So Aadhaar linking is essential in this case.

The linking of Aadhaar with the phone number

Till now the telecom service has been sending messages about linking your mobile number with the Aadhaar card. Now you can avoid those. The Supreme Court has said that it is not compulsory anymore to link the phone number with the Aadhaar number.

Bank account link

This is the thing that has been an issue with many. Going to home branches to link the account has been a complaint from many individuals. In that case, you will be relieved to know that this is not necessary anymore. So, in case you have already linked your bank account, there are ways to delink it.

Private companies cannot ask for Aadhaar details

Section 57 has been struck down by the Supreme Court and as per that the consumers need not share the details to private companies. This way the Aadhaar number would be confidential and will not be exposed to any third party.

In school admissions

The Supreme Court said clearly that unavailability of Aadhaar must not affect or deny the admission of a child to a school. The producing of Aadhaar is not necessary and thus the no benefits can be denied to the child on the basis of that.

Aadhaar requirement in exams are nullified

Before this new law, Aadhaar number was required in exams conducted under CBSE, NEET and other university-level exams. This won’t be required from now on.

The initial requirement of Aadhaar

Aadhaar is a unique 12-digit ID number issued to people by the UIDAI subsequent to putting away their biometrics information. The UIDAI utilizes iris and unique finger impression outputs to acquire biometric information from a candidate and stores it in the database. It was propelled in India in 2009 to streamline welfare installments and diminish wastage in public money spending.  

As per the records, more than one billion Indians have already signed up for Aadhaar. The Unique Identification Number was earlier made compulsory for bank accounts, PAN cards, cellphone services, passport and even driving licenses as an overarching proof of identity and residence. The petitioners who challenged the constitutional legitimacy of the Aadhaar card were debating in court on fundamental issues of privacy, surveillance, data protection, consent, and legislative processes.

Many Congress officials have come forward to show their support on the verdicts. Tweets were overflowing in giving kudos to the judgment. One of the tweets said, “We welcome the Supreme Court's decision to strike down Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act which was being followed until now. The rule that private entities will not anymore be allowed to use Aadhaar for verification purposes is completely valid”.

Some more facts

The Supreme Court read down Section 33 (2) which implies that your Aadhaar information can't be imparted to security organizations for the sake of maintaining national security. The court also mentioned that the Aadhaar validation information can't be stored or put away for over a half year.

In case any person thinks that there is a theft of data theft through Aadhaar a complaint can be filed. Earlier, as indicated by Section 47 of the Aadhaar Act, just the Government of India could complain about the theft of Aadhaar information. Going by that norm now, the Supreme Court decided that individuals also can complain about it.