KSEEB told to issue hall ticket to student without insisting on Aadhaar

The High Court of Karnataka on Friday ordered issue of notice to the State and Union governments and the Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) on a petition filed by a Class 10 student and his father complaining that authorities have “indirectly” made Aadhaar mandatory for students appearing for the SSLC exam to be held in April 2018.

It has been alleged in the petition that online application form cannot be completed and submitted without entering Aadhaar number of the student though the State authorities have not issued any official notification making Aadhaar mandatory to submit the form.

The court also issued an interim order permitting the petitioner-student to submit the application form manually through his school authorities before December 13, 2017, and directed the KSEEB to issue the hall ticket to him without insisting on Aadhaar if he is otherwise eligible to appear for the exam.

Justice B.V. Nagarathna passed the interim order on the petition filed by D. Adarsha Bhat, a student of Vittal Jaycees English Medium School, Vittal, Daksina Kannada, and his father, D. Subramanya Bhat, both residents of Veerakamba village, Bantwal taluk.

Petitioner’s counsel Dore Raj claimed before the court that Aadhaar was optional and the petitioner-student does not possess Aadhaar at present, and pointed out that filling the application form online through the Student Achievement Tracking System (SATS) was not possible without entering Aadhaar number. This, the counsel claimed, denies the student the opportunity to secure hall ticket.

By indirectly insisting Aadhaar for the SATS, the student career of the petitioner-student can be tracked at any point of time and it violates fundamental right of privacy under the Article 21 of the Constitution as declared by the apex court, it was contended in the petition.

The petition also pointed out that making Aadhaar mandatory amounts to violation of the apex court’s order that has prohibited the authorities from denying any service to citizens for want of Aadhaar.