Times Now: New Delhi: Tuesday,
March 28, 2017.
The Supreme
Court on Monday told the government that it cannot make Aadhaar card bearing
the 12-digit unique identification number mandatory for extending benefits of
its welfare schemes to the citizens of the country.
The top court
however said that the centre cannot be stopped from mandating Aadhaar for other
non-governmental schemes like opening bank accounts.
The decision
comes after the recent backlash on social media against the government’s
decision to make it mandatory to link Aadhaar with permanent account number
(PAN) cards for filing income tax returns. It had earlier linked the aadhaar
card with many other schemes.
Yesterday,
the government also informed Telcos in the country that they will have to
conduct a re-verification process of all its new and existing customers using
Aadhaar number.
However,
today’s ruling has clearly stated that the government is not allowed to use the
card for any welfare schemes.
While there
are several claims about the security risks and loopholes involved with the
UIDAI’s Biometric identification programme, there is no way to access
information due to unavailability of information about the discrepancies.
As per
several media reports, RTI requests seeking details about Aadhaar card hacks
have been denied by the government on grounds of national security.
There are
several pleas on the risks involved with Aadhaar integration, and the top court
has said that a seven-judge bench will be set up to her the pleas challenging
the card.
However, the
SC panel also declared that hearing the pleas will take time and won’t be
possible right now.
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