The Chhattisgarh High Court has modified its order that made Aadhaar card of the accused as well as surety mandatory before obtaining bail. Now the surety can submit any document of identification like voter ID, PAN, passport also.

Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra, in the order on Thursday, said he was convinced with the submission made by the majority of the advocates who made their submissions that as the issue concerning validity of the instrument of Aadhaar itself is under consideration by the Supreme Court, submission of Aadhaar card may not be made mandatory.

The court agreed with the counsel appearing for District Bar Association that submission of Aadhaar card may not be made mandatory and the identification of accused or the surety can be directed by obtaining other proof of identity like Voter ID, passport, PAN card, etc.

The court then modified the directions issued as: While examining the surety papers, the trial court shall necessarily obtain documents of identification like Aadhaar card, Voter ID, PAN card or Passport [… copy of the Aadhaar card of the accused as well as] of the surety.

The order was modified in spite of the submission of Deputy Advocate General that out of 3,200 inmates in Central Jail, Bilaspur, Aadhaar card of 2,481 inmates have already been prepared and regular camp for preparation of Aadhaar card is held at short intervals in all the jails of state and therefore, there is absolutely no difficulty in preparation of Aadhaar card.

Live Law had reported earlier order of the high court that had made Aadhaar mandatory, wherein the judge had observed: “No doubt, going by aforesaid, and may be some other similarly valid considerations, it is the intention of the Government to give fillip to Aadhaar movement and encourage the people of this country to enroll themselves under the Aadhaar scheme.”

Later, the CJI-headed bench of the apex court disposed of the petition filed by advocate Peeyush Bhatia challenging the said order, after the counsel for the Chhattisgarh Bar Council informed the bench that it has moved the high court seeking modification of the order. The bench had asked the high court to decide the plea for modification of order in 10 days.