Aadhaar card will not be mandatory for availing benefits of government’s welfare schemes, the Supreme Court ruled today as it barred the authorities from sharing personal biometric data collected for enrolment under the scheme.
A Constitution bench of the apex court will also decide the larger question of whether collecting biometric data for preparing Aadhaar cards infringed an individual’s privacy and if right to privacy was a fundamental right.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice J Chelameshwar recorded the statement of Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi that the Centre would ensure that Aadhaar is issued on “consensual basis after informing public at large about the fact that the preparation of Aadhaar involving the parting of biometric information of the individual shall however not be used for any purpose other than social benefit schemes.”
The bench, also comprising Justices S A Bobde and C Nagappan, passed a slew of directions for the Centre till the matter is “finally decided by a larger Bench”.
“The Union of India shall give wide publicity in the electronic and print media including radio and television networks that it is not mandatory for a citizen to obtain an Aadhaar card,” it said, adding, “the production of an Aadhaar card will not be condition for obtaining any benefits otherwise due to a citizen.”
The UID number “will not be used” by authorities for any purpose “other than the PDS Scheme and in particular for the purpose of distribution of foodgrains, etc and cooking fuel, such as kerosene. The Aadhaar card may also be used for the purpose of the LPG Distribution Scheme,” it said.
“The information about an individual obtained by the Unique Identification Authority of India while issuing an Aadhaar card shall not be used for any other purpose, save as above, except as may be directed by a Court for the purpose of criminal investigation,” the judges ruled.
Earlier in the day, the same bench had referred to Chief Justice H L Dattu the batch of petitions challenging the Centre’s Aadhaar card scheme to constitute a larger Constitution Bench which would decide whether right to privacy constitutes a fundamental right.
The petitioners have claimed that collection and sharing of biometric information, as required under the scheme, is a breach of the “fundamental” right to privacy.
At an earlier hearing, Rohatgi, while backing the Aadhar card scheme, had contended that right to privacy was not a fundamental right.