Fake Indian Passports Held By Srilankan Nationals: Madras High Court Directs UIDAI To Share Details Of 35 Aadhaar Cards With 'Q' Branch-CID

Justice G Jayachandran made the above order on a plea by the Deputy Superintendent following rejection of his request by the UIDAI, seeking information about the Aadhaar Card Numbers along with KYC documents submitted by the applicants of the concerned Aadhaar cards.

The relief sought by the petitioner was to direct the respondent to share the Aadhaar card information including the genuineness of the Aadhaar Cards, whether they were issued to the same person, and any updates from the date of issue to date done to these numbers(including name, address, date of birth and mobile number), and the details of the authorized person who can make/have made the corrections, the certified copied of the applications along with the KYC documents submitted by the applicants.

The petitioner submitted that the same was necessary to complete the investigation with respect to a crime relating to fake Indian Passports possessed by Sri Lankan Nationals.

The respondents submitted that such sharing of information regarding the Aadhaar Card details will amount to a breach of the order of the Supreme Court in Justice K.S Puttaswamy and Another v. Union of India and Others (2017)

The court, however, was of the opinion that the intention of the petitioners for obtaining the information was merely to ascertain whether the Aadhaar cards seized by them were genuine or not and if so, to ascertain on what basis these were issued to such Foreign Nationals. Thus, furnishing of such information does not amount to the disclosure of private details of any individuals but to determining the existence of such individuals, and as such is not prohibited by the Puttaswamy judgment.

It was also brought to the attention of the court that under Section 33 of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act 2016, disclosure of information in certain cases is permitted in the interest of national security.

Section 33 of the Act read as:-

33. Disclosure of information in certain cases.—
(1) Nothing contained in sub-section (2) or sub-section (5) of Section 28 or sub-section (2) of Section 29 shall apply in respect of any disclosure of information, including identity information or authentication records, made pursuant to an order of a court not inferior to that of a [Judge of a High Court]:
Provided that no order by the court under this subsection shall be made without giving an opportunity of hearing to the Authority [and the concerned Aadhaar number holder]: [Provided further that the core biometric information shall not be disclosed under this sub-section.]

(2) Nothing contained in sub-section (2) or sub-section (5) of Section 28 and clause (b) of sub-section (1), sub-section (2) or sub-section (3) of Section 29 shall apply in respect of any disclosure of information, including identity information or authentication records, made in the interest of national security in pursuance of a direction of an officer, not below the rank of [Secretary] to the Government of India specially authorized in this behalf by an order of the Central Government:
Provided that every direction issued under this subsection, shall be reviewed by an Oversight Committee consisting of the Cabinet Secretary and the Secretaries to the Government of India in the Department of Legal Affairs and the Department of Electronics and Information Technology before it takes effect:
Provided further that any direction issued under this subsection shall be valid for a period of three months from the date of its issue, which may be extended for a further period of three months after the review by the Oversight Committee.

The Act under Section 2(n) also defines "Identity Information" to include the Aadhaar number, biometric information, and demographic information.

Therefore, in view of the above provision, the High court may issue directions to disclose the information including the identity of an Aadhaar Card Holder. Thus, the court directed UIDAI to furnish the information within a period of three weeks from the date of receipt of the order copy.