We welcome Aadhaar verdict, India can't afford to be a tech laggard: Arun Jaitley

Calling Supreme Court's verdict on Aadhaar a historic judgement, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Aadhaar has helped the government in saving Rs 90,000 crore every year and the government welcomes the apex court decision.

"It is a historic judgement and the whole concept of unique identity number that has been accepted after judicial review is an extremely welcome decision," Jaitley said.

Taking a dig at Congress, Jaitley said: "India can't afford to be a tech laggard. Everyone who has been criticizing Aadhaar should understand that they cannot defy technology. Mainstream should accept changes."


"Congress cuts a very sorry figure here, they introduced the idea but they did not know what to do with it," Jaitley said.

Finance Minister said that the judgement empowers democracy and Aadhaar is important for proper distribution of welfare schemes. Highlighting the benefits of Aadhaar, Jaitley said the government is already saving over Rs 90,000 crore due to Aadhaar.

He also said that the government's stand has been vindicated as Supreme Court accepted that the Aadhaar Act is a money bill.

In a historic judgement, Supreme Court today declared the Centre's flagship Aadhaar scheme as constitutionally valid but struck down some of its provisions including its linking with bank accounts, mobile phones and school admissions.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra held that while Aadhaar would remain mandatory for filing of IT returns and allotment of Permanent Account Number (PAN), it would not be mandatory to link Aadhaar to bank accounts and the telecom service providers cannot seek its linking for mobile connections.