Have decks been cleared for national citizens’ ID?

By laying down that Aadhaar should not be issued to “illegal immigrants”, the Supreme Court on Wednesday may have cleared the way for a national citizenship card.

“We direct the Union government not to issue Aadhaar to illegal immigrants,” the court said in what could be an important step to transform Aadhaar from an identity paper to a citizenship document. The order will require the UIDAI and the government to weed out “illegal immigrants” who have secured Aadhaar cards.

“This is a powerful nudge,” said a senior government official. He said the directive has, as a logical corollary, empowered the government to take steps to deny welfare benefits to foreigners are in the country illegally.


The legal dictate acquires significance at a time when politics is roiled by the debate on the effort to detect illegal immigrants by finalising the National Register of Citizens in Assam and BJP’s stand that “aliens” who have infiltrated the country are eating into its scarce resources.