Government urges SC to lift restraint order on Aadhaar cards

NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court to vacate the restraint order on Aadhaar cards, clamped on benefits other than the public distribution system, and LPG and kerosene subsidies, saying the unique identification numbers will help curb use of black money and check terrorism. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi vehemently contested arguments that information of a really personal nature was being collected by private agencies for the Unique Identification Authority of India ( UIDAI) and could be leaked to foreign intelligence agencies and misused.

A three-judge bench, comprising Justices J Chelameshwar, SA Bobde and C Nagappan, is hearing a batch of petitions challenging the legality of introducing the scheme on the grounds that it intrudes into the citizens’ right to freedom through an executive fiat. Such intrusions into a citizen’s right to privacy cannot be made without the authority of a law, with adequate safeguards to prevent the leak of such information, according to the petitions.

After hearing short arguments, the bench had in 2013 issued orders restraining the Centre and state governments from insisting on Aadhaar cards for providing social security benefits of any kind. But it had later modified the order to permit its use to make available PDS, LPG and kerosene subsidies.

The government said it wants the court to lift the restraint completely so that Aadhaar cards could be used by government agencies in several other areas such as banking, telecom and stock markets.

Senior counsel Shyam Divan, appearing for former High Court judge K Puttaswamy Gowda, who was the first to challenge legality of Aadhaar scheme as violative of the fundamental right to privacy, resisted the move. A government college in Mumbai had told students that their examination hall tickets would not be issued without Aadhaar cards, he said.