A five-judge Supreme Court (SC) bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra will on Wednesday begin hearing petitions challenging the…
Supreme Court of India (Photo: IANS/File)
A five-judge Supreme Court (SC) bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra will on Wednesday begin hearing petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Aadhaar cards, five months after the apex court ruled that privacy was a fundamental right.
Justices AK Sikri, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan along with the CJI will hear a clutch of petitions, the earliest one filed back in 2012, claiming that the Aadhaar violates an individual’s fundamental right to privacy.
The petitions also challenge a 2016 law enacted by Parliament that forces people to enrol for the Aadhaar scheme to access public benefits and services after the apex court in 2013 prevented the then UPA government from doing so.
Advertisement
The hearing comes days after a newspaper managed to gain access to the Aadhaar database by paying just Rs.500. The protests against the 12- digit unique identification number, backed by biometric data, has only intensified after that.
Following the first petition filed five years ago, the top court has dealt numerous challenges arguing that the Aadhaar was a threat to an individual’s privacy and security.
The government has already lifted the December 31 deadline for the linking of Aadhaar with bank accounts and PAN.
Earlier the deadline for the linking of Aadhaar with PAN was August 31, 2017 which was extended till December 31, 2016 and now it has been further extended without any specific deadline.
Meanwhile, the deadline for the linking of Aadhaar with mobile numbers is February 6.
(With inputs from agencies)
Advertisement
