On January 11, 2021, the Supreme Court will examine the court’s verdict on the impact of Aadhaar card verdict on privacy. The review will be done by a 5-judge bench led by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar.
Key Points
- The bench also includes Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh.
- The bench will be examining 7 petitions in this regard.
- These petitions have been filed for the re-examination of the court’s verdict stating that the Aadhaar programme is reasonable and unparalleled identity proof.
- However, the court order restricted linking the Aadhaar card in some areas owing to the privacy of a person.
What was the Aadhaar Card Verdict?
The Aadhaar Card verdict was declared in September 2018. As per the judgment of the court, it declared Aadhaar Card “constitutional” but struck down Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act which allows it to be linked to banks and other entities. The key points of the verdict were-
- Aadhaar is mandatory for allotment of Permanent Account Number (PAN) and filing of income tax returns (ITR) and.
- UGC, CBSE, and NEET cannot make Aadhaar mandatory and it cannot be mandatory for school admissions.
- It is not mandatory to link bank accounts with Aadhaar.
- Telecom service providers also cannot link Aadhaar.
- As per the verdict, the authentication data of Aadhaar cannot be stored for more than 6 months.
- The court also said that no child can be denied the benefits of any scheme because of the unavailability of Aadhaar number.
The Supreme Court said that it is not at all possible to get a duplicate Aadhaar card and the Aadhaar act does not violate the privacy of a person.
Now, the new 5-judge bench will review this decision and announce decisions on the petitions.