The Supreme Court verdict upholding the constitutional validity of Aadhaar was met with varied reactions from Delhiites.
While some continued to raise questions about invasion of privacy, others were happy that certain riders had been introduced that banned private companies making Aadhaar compulsory for services like getting a SIM card, admission into educational institutions and bank accounts.
Rethink Aadhaar, a non-partisan campaign working to highlight the shortcomings of Aadhaar, called the verdict a significant step as “even the four who upheld the judgment read down several sections of the Aadhaar Act and limited the unrestrained expansion of the Aadhaar project”.
“The judgment restricts the sharing of Aadhaar data with other agencies in the name of ‘national security’ a term which is nowhere defined in the Constitution. The judgment gives residents a right to hearing on data sharing and for filing complaints against UIDAI if their data is breached. In all these aspects, the court has found the Aadhaar Act flawed,” said an activist at Rethink Aadhaar.
However, that said, they were shocked and disappointed that the court failed to read down Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act which allows for welfare to be made contingent on the production of Aadhaar.
Privacy invasion
“I first realised how Aadhaar invaded my privacy when I submitted my fingerprint to a telecom company that threatened to disconnect my phone. A stranger could see all my information. I am glad that there are riders now that will prevent private companies from having access to such data,” said Delhi University student Namrata Datta. She hoped that companies would now delete data that they were no longer allowed to hold.
Calling it a balanced verdict, founder of a media company Shashank Bhardwaj said, “What irritates me is the government’s hypocrisy. The government will link Aadhaar to all sorts of services in the name of security but they will not link Aadhaar to voter IDs. I am for linking essential stuff like PAN to Aadhaar to detect tax evasion but honestly they were pushing it so much that all conspiracy theories began to seem realistic.”
Tarun Rao Kallakuru, a law student, also felt that the part of the judgment that stood out was the point on private companies not being allowed access to Aadhaar data.
(With inputs from
Ivjyot Singh Oberoi)
