The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a joint petition filed by Magsaysay award winner Shanta Sinha and feminist researcher Kalyani Sen Menon for a stay of more than 17 government schemes insisting Aadhaar for availing benefits of midday meals, disability pension, Bhopal gas tragedy victims, among other programmes.
A Bench of Justices A.K. Sikri and Ashok Bhushan asked senior advocate Shyam Divan and advocates Vipin Nair and P.B. Suresh to approach the Chief Justice of India to tag the petition along with the batch scheduled to be heard by a Constitution Bench.
The petition said the UIDAI platform that is the Aadhaar database was being utilised to affect each and every aspect of the individual life — from holding a valid PAN card, filing income tax returns, maintaining a bank account, getting scholarship, giving examination, admissions to colleges, domestic air travel, to having a mobile phone connection.
The petition argued that mandatory requirement of Aadhaar for these schemes “constricts rights and freedoms which citizens have long been enjoying unless and until they part with their personal biometric information to the government.”
Accordingly, from July 1, 2017, an individual who is not willing to part with personal biometric information will be denied social benefits which he or she is entitled to on the sole basis of non-production of an Aadhaar number, the plea said.
The petition termed the Aadhaar Act of 2016 unconstitutional. It was passed on March 11 last year by the Lok Sabha when the attendance was merely 73 out of the total 543 members.
