The Wire: National: Tuesday, June 13, 2017.
In court, the
government said Aadhaar is needed because there are lots of fake and duplicate
PAN cards. So why won’t it say how many dodgy Aadhaar cards there are?
When the
question of linking the biometric-based Aadhaar identity card with the income
tax system was challenged in the Supreme Court, the Modi government said that
this was the only way to deal with the rampant problem of fake and duplicate
PAN cards. Income tax assessees were able to generate multiple PAN numbers for
themselves and thus evade taxes, the government said, citing figures which
critics noted were highly exaggerated.
In accepting
the government’s logic that the mandatory use of the Aadhaar number in income
tax returns was “directly connected with the issue of duplicate/fake PANs”, the
Supreme Court last week took at face value the government’s claim that the
problem of duplication and fake cards would not affect Aadhaar.
But how
robust is this claim and what does the data tell us? The problem is the UIDAI
is unwilling to provide that information.
PTI reported
on Monday that theUnique Identification Authority of India has refused to share
information on the number of fake and duplicate Aadhaar cards, saying the
disclosure might affect national security, or can lead to incitement of an
offence.
Replying to
an RTI query by a PTI correspondent, the UIDAI, which issues the Aadhaar card,
also refused to give details of any action it has taken in such cases.
The UIDAI
told PTI that its Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) facilities,
information assets, logistics and infrastructure and dependencies, are all
classified as a ‘protected system’ under section 70(1) of the Information
Technology Act, 2000, and thus exempt from the RTI.
“Any
disclosure of the UIDAI grievance database, which essentially forms a part of
the UIDAI CIDR operations, therefore, would have an impact on national
security, strategic, scientific and economic interest of the state etc.,” the
UIDAI told the PTI correspondent in response to her RTI application.
The authority
was asked to provide details related to all cases of duplicate and fake Aadhaar
cards received by the UIDAI, and also the action taken on them.
The
information sought would fall under Section 8(a) of the RTI Act, and therefore,
it is denied, the UIDAI said.
The section
bars information the “disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the
sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or
economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to
incitement of an offence”.
Further, the
format in which information is held by the UIDAI, contains identity details
which, if divulged, maybe prone to identity-theft etc, the authority said.
The Aadhaar
card carries a 12-digit unique identification number. The card in turn acts as
a proof of identity and address.
There have
been a few complaints against certain unauthorised websites for promising
Aadhaar-related services.
At least
eight FIRs have been filed by police against as many unauthorised websites for
promising such services.
With inputs
from PTI
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