With deadline for enrolment nearing, petitioners seek urgent resolution of case

The petitioners in the Aadhaar case is expected to make an urgent mentioning before a Bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, on August 29 for an early decision on the validity of the scheme.

The urgency is due to the fact that September 30 is the deadline for the public to enrol themselves in the Aadhaar scheme for accessing welfare benefits.

The Centre had earlier extended the June 30 deadline till September 30 for those who are availing themselves of the benefits of welfare schemes without Aadhaar.

A five-judge Constitution Bench, led by J.S. Khehar who demitted office as Chief Justice of India on Monday, was considering the validity of the scheme. The hearing before this Bench came to a standstill after the court wanted to first know whether or not the right to privacy is a fundamental one.

Also Read Right to privacy verdict: a timeline of SC hearings

A shot in the arm

The question was referred to a nine-judge Bench that unanimously ruled on August 24 that privacy is a fundamental right inherent to life and personal liberty.

Bolstered by this judgment, the petitioners, represented by senior advocate Shyam Divan and Vipin Nair who have argued that the biometric details collected under the Aadhaar scheme violated bodily and informational privacy, want an early resolution of their case. With the retirement of Justice Khehar, Chief Justice Misra will have to re-configure the Constitution Bench handling the Aadhaar case.

‘Constricts freedom’

The petitioners have challenged the validity of over 17 government schemes that required Aadhaar. They said the mandatory requirement of Aadhaar for these schemes “constricts rights and freedoms which a citizen has long been enjoying unless and until they part with their personal biometric information to the government.”

The petition termed the Aadhaar Act of 2016 unconstitutional and contrary to the concept of limited and accountable government.

“Collection of biometric data, including fingerprints, and storing them in a central depository per se puts the state in an extremely dominant position in relation to the individual citizen,” the petition said. “Going by the stand of the UIDAI itself, the number of cases in which de-duplication resulted in the rejection of an application for an Aadhaar number is to the tune of nine crore out of around 100 crore enrolments. The number, nine crore, is just a little less than the population of Bihar and twice the population of Odisha as per the 2011 census,” it said.