Court directive to oil companies on Aadhaar

A Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyothi Sengupta and P.V. Sanjay Kumar on Thursday made it clear that supply of subsidised cooking gas (LPG) for residential use should not be curtailed in the name of Aadhaar card.

The Bench was dealing with a writ petition filed by P.S.R. Sharma of Hyderabad.

The petitioner challenged the action of the authorities in insisting on Aadhaar card and unique identity number for any government schemes including the supply of subsidised cooking gas for household purposes.

The Bench heard the matter in detail and felt that linking Aadhaar with gas supply could not be made compulsory.

Officers of the Petroleum Ministry filed an affidavit informing the court that no statutory notification was issued mandating Aadhaar card for the supply of LPG cylinder for domestic needs.

Counsel for the petitioner averred that collecting data of the citizens through bio-metric system amounted to violation of the right of privacy guaranteed under right to life. It was also submitted to the court that no law was passed and no rule was framed for linking Aadhaar with supply of various welfare schemes for the citizens.

The Bench speaking through the Chief Justice said that in the absence of any notification or statute the oil companies had no right to insist on production of Aadhaar card for supply of domestic LPG cylinders.