The Supreme Court commenced the final hearing on petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Aadhaar on Wednesday, 17 January and continued for a second day on Thursday. The third day of hearings is scheduled for 23 January.
A five-judge bench comprising CJI Misra, Justice AK Sikri, Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice DY Chandrachud, and Justice Ashok Bhushan, are presiding over the hearing.
- A five-judge Supreme Court bench began hearing the petitions challenging validity of Aadhaar on 17 January
- The hearing comes after a nine-judge Supreme Court bench upheld privacy as a fundamental right in August 2017
- Centre on 7 December extended the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to 31 March 2018 for availing welfare schemes
- The first petition challenging Aadhaar was filed by Former High Court Judge Justice KS Puttaswamy in 2012
- The petitioner argued that there was no way to opt out of the Aadhaar and that people’s information is given to private parties
Aadhaar Case Resumes
A five-judge Constitution bench has resumed hearing arguments in connection with the constitutional validity of Aadhaar in the Supreme Court
Day 2 of the Hearing Concludes, Hearing to Resume on 23 January
Prior to the end, Divan had emphasized that civil-political rights like the right to privacy were complementary with socio-economic rights, so protecting privacy and uplifting the poor didn’t need to be at loggerheads.
CJI Dipak Misra asked Divan to refer to a specific paragraph of the privacy judgment, about the dangers to privacy in the “age of information”. Divan proceeded to read out a specific paragraph 306, which dealt with issues of information privacy, specifically how even metadata could be used for data mining and data profiling.
The hearing will now resume on 23 January.
“In a Digitized World, the Government Has to Be an Ally of Citizens, Not Its Adversary”
Divan emphasizes something the Supreme Court held in the privacy judgment:
Public welfare can only be sustained when individual liberties and freedoms are respected.
He also counters the argument that if people are willing to give information to companies, they should be willing to give this for Aadhaar as well.
Noting the way in which corporations pose risks to privacy, he says that the government should be looking to protect the privacy of its citizens, and should be working with them to do so.
Continuing to read from Justice Chandrachud’s judgment, Divan points out how physical interference is no longer required to violate someone’s privacy, but that details of their transactions is enough to profile everything they do.
"Aadhaar Violative of Fundamental Right to Privacy"
Divan now moves on to arguments against Aadhaar in the context of the fundamental right to privacy, affirmed by a 9-judge bench of the Supreme Court in August 2017.
The procedure for deprivation of right to personal liberty must be just, fair and reasonable.Shyam Divan
He begins by referring to how that case came about – because in the hearings against Aadhaar in 2015, the government had argued that the Constitution didn’t guarantee a fundamental right to privacy.
He proceeds to reference relevant paragraphs of Justice Chandrachud’s own judgment from that case.
He notes how the Court found that privacy existed as a fundamental right in Article 21 of the Constitution, and was also a crucial part of other fundamental rights. He also points out how the right to privacy was based on ideas of dignity, autonomy and identity, which the Court had found to be part of the entire Constitution.