New Delhi; In a verdict with far-reaching consequences and described as balanced, the Supreme Court Wednesday upheld the constitutional validity of 'Aadhaar' but limited the scope of the controversial biometric identity project by quashing some provisions that made it mandatory for bank accounts, mobile connections or school admissions.
Holding there was nothing in the Aadhaar Act that violates right to privacy of an individual, a five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra in a 4 to 1 verdict also cleared the use of Aadhaar for welfare schemes after a long-drawn legal battle against the government's ambitious project- the world's largest biometric ID database.
The court, however, held Aadhaar would remain mandatory for the filing of Income Tax(IT) returns and allotment of Permanent Account Number (PAN).
It struck down Section 57 of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 that permitted private entities like telecom companies or other corporates to avail of the biometric Aadhaar data.
Ruling that Aadhaar authentication data cannot be stored for more than six months, the court also directed the government not to give Aadhaar to illegal immigrants.
Justice D Y Chandrachud gave a dissenting judgement in which he ruled the Aadhaar Act should not have been passed as Money Bill as it amounts to a fraud on the Constitution and is liable to be struck down. But the majority verdict by justices A K Sikri, Ashok Bhushan and A M Khanwilkar besides the CJI upheld the passage of the Aadhaar Bill as a Money Bill by the Lok Sabha.
Observing that Aadhaar was meant to help the benefits reach the marginalised sections of society, it said the scheme took into account the dignity of people not only from personal but from the community point of view as well and served the much more significant public interest. Aadhaar means unique, and it is better to be unique than being best, it said.
"Aadhaar gives dignity to the marginalised. Dignity to the marginalised outweighs privacy," Justice Sikri said while reading out the operative part of the 1,448-page judgement in the packed courtroom of the CJI. "One can't throw the baby out with the bathwater."
The court held it would not be mandatory to link Aadhaar to bank accounts and the telecom service providers cannot seek its linking for mobile connections.
It would also not be mandatory for school admissions, as even for the examinations conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Examination, National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for medical entrance and the University Grants Commission, the court said.
Dealing with other issues, the court quashed section 33(2)of the Aadhaar act in the present form that allowed collection of data of an individual under the scheme on the grounds of national security, saying an officer higher than the rank of a Joint Secretary should be given such a power.
Describing the Supreme Court judgement on Aadhaar as "historic", Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Wednesday said it had helped the government in saving Rs 90,000 crore every year with targeted delivery of government schemes
Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said it "empowered democracy".
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee welcomed the verdict and termed it as a victory of the people.
The verdict was pronounced on a bunch of 31 petitions, including one by former High Court judge K S Puttaswamy after concluding on May 10 a marathon hearing that went on for 38 days, spanning four-and-half months. The Aadhaar case was the "second longest" one in terms of days of hearing after the historic Kesavananda Bharati case of 1973.