Supreme Court To Consider Review Petitions Against Aadhaar Verdict Tomorrow

The review petitions against the September 2018 verdict of the Supreme Court upholding the Aadhaar project are listed before a five judge bench tomorrow.

A Constitution Bench comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan, S Abdul Nazeer and BR Gavai will consider the petitions at 1.30 pm in chamber.

Of the review bench, Justices Khanwilkar, Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan were part of the original bench which decided the case on September 26, 2018.

While Justice Khanwilkar and Bhushan were part of the majority, Justice Chandrachud was the lone dissenter in the 5 judge bench.

The majority, which comprised the then CJI Dipak Misra, Justices AK Sikri, Khanwilkar and Bhushan upheld the Aaadhar scheme but struck down and read down certain provisions of the Aadhaar Act 2016. The compulsory use of Aadhaar based KYC for mobile connections and bank accounts was prohibited by the SC.

The majority judgment authored by Justice Sikri also held that the architecture of Aadhaar, as well as the provisions of the Aadhaar Act, do not tend to create a surveillance state. It was observed that this aspect is ensured by the manner in which the Aadhaar project operates. The judges also found that it is very difficult to create profile of a person simply on the basis of biometric and demographic information stored in CIDR. Insofar as authentication is concerned, there are sufficient safeguard mechanisms, the majority opined.

Justice Chandrachud, in his dissent, held the entire Aadhar Act to be unconstitutional. He also held that the passing of Aadhaar Act as a money bill was a fraud on the Constitution. Justice Chandrachud further observed it was worrying that a foreign company has the source code of the Aadhaar project and that there were valid concerns about the infringement of citizens' privacy.

Foreign Company Has Source Code of Aadhaar Project; It Has Access To Citizens' Information : Certain Worrying Findings By Justice Chandrachud