New Delhi: Supreme Court on Thursday rapped the center, saying its proposal to link Aadhaar with the mobile phone numbers of all Indians was “a problem.”
“Do terrorists apply for SIM cards? It’s a problem that you are asking the entire population to link their mobile phones with Aadhaar,” justice D.Y. Chandrachud remarked.
The question came up when attorney general K.K. Venugopal submitted that biometrics were a safe and accurate technology that could prevent money laundering, bank frauds, income tax evasion and terrorism.
“Aadhaar will not prevent an individual from operating layers of commercial transactions. It won’t prevent bank frauds either. It can only help in providing benefits, subsidies under section 7 of the Aadhaar Act,” said justice Chandrachud.
The Constitution bench also questioned the centre on the “test of proportionality” under the Aadhaar scheme, with Chandrachud observing that “mere legitimate state interest” would not ensure proportionality. “How far can the state cast the net? To extend its scope up to section 7 (benefits, subsidies etc) seems to be understandable,” he added.
In an earlier hearing, the court had asked the Unique Identification Data Authority of India (UIDAI) to explain the scope of its powers and violation of privacy over collection of iris scan, fingerprints, “any other biological attributes” of an individual.
“Tomorrow, UIDAI may even say to give blood samples,” Chandrachud said. Curbing terrorism, money laundering, black money and delivery of subsidies and benefits had been listed by the centre as “legitimate state interests” in rolling out the Aadhaar scheme. (Mint)
