New Delhi, Sep 26 (NIE): The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016, was constitutionally valid, but a person’s rights could not be denied on the ground of lack of the unique ID. While the apex court upheld seeding of PAN with Aadhaar, it set aside linking Aadhaar to bank accounts and mobile phone numbers.

Ruling that Aadhaar was not compulsory for school admissions, the SC said no child could be denied benefits of any schemes for not having Aadhaar number. “CBSE, NEET, UGC cannot make Aadhaar mandatory, also it is not compulsory for school admissions,” Justice AK Sikri, who is part of the five-judge bench that heard a clutch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar Act and who wrote the majority judgment, said.

Stating that Aadhaar empowers the marginalised sections of society and gave them an identity, the SC said Aadhaar authentication data cannot be stored for more than six months. Justice A K Sikri, who is part of the five-judge bench ruling on the validity of the Aadhaar Act and who wrote the majority judgment, also struck down Section 57 of Aadhaar Act, which permits private entities to avail of Aadhaar data. Sikri said Aadhaar was different from other ID proofs as it could not be duplicated.

“Minimal demographic and biometric data of citizens are collected by the UIDAI for Aadhaar enrolment. Aadhaar number given to a person is unique and can’t go to any other person. Aadhaar identification is unparalleled,” Justice Sikri, who has authored the judgment on behalf of himself, CJI Dipak Misra and Justice AM Khanwilkar, said in opening remarks.

The bench, also comprising of D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, had on May 10 reserved its judgment on a string of writ petitions, pending since 2012, challenging the constitutionality of the Aadhaar Act, bringing to a conclusion which, in the words of Attorney General KK Venugopal, was the second-longest hearing in the history of the apex court. The case was heard for 38 days.

The first petition was filed by former High Court Judge Justice K S Puttaswamy in 2012. He had argued that Aadhaar violated the right to privacy and had no legislative backing.

The brainchild of the UPA government, the Aadhaar Bill was passed by the Narendra Modi government in 2016, with the mode of the passage of the Bill itself raking up controversy. The government termed the Aadhaar Act, 2016, a Money Bill and passed it in Lok Sabha. However, former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh challenged the manner used for the passage of the Aaadhar Act and the case was clubbed with the petitions.

In his judgment, Justice Chandrachud differed with Justice Sikri, saying the Aadhaar bill could not have been passed as a Money Bill. “Passing of bill as Money bill when it does not qualify as a Money bill is a fraud on Constitution and violates its basic structure,” Chandrachud said. He also said the decision of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha to treat a bill as Money Bill could be subject to judicial review.

The main thrust of the case brought by petitioners was that Aadhaar encroached on the privacy of citizens because it entailed collection of fingerprints, iris scans and other details of citizens with/without their consent. Last year, the Supreme Court had ruled that the right to privacy was an “intrinsic part of life and personal liberty”, guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution.

During the hearing, which spread over four months, the Centre defended its decision to link Aadhaar to social welfare schemes, saying this had ensured that subsidies went to the right people. It also touched upon the national security angle, saying it had a vital role to play in curbing terror and preventing money laundering and crime financing.

Though it was initially linked to social welfare schemes, the unique identity was later tied to bank accounts, financial and property transactions, the filing of IT returns, and even mobile services. However, in March, in an interim order, the apex court had said that the mandatory linking of bank accounts and mobile phones would stand extended “indefinitely” till judgment on the petitions pending before it was pronounced.

Aadhaar is presently the world’s largest biometric and identity database with 122.56 crore numbers issued to Indian citizens. These have been used for 2,322 crore authentications.