New Delhi sources stated that the Supreme Court on Wednesday declared the Centre's flagship Aadhaar scheme as constitutionally valid. Meanwhile the apex court's five judge Constitution bench said Aadhaar means unique and it is better to be unique than being best. Accordingly Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice A M Khanwilkar of Supreme Court said the first of the three judgments was pronounced by Justice A K Sikri. Justice Sikri pronounced the judgment for himself.
The Supreme Court said Aadhaar will not be required for opening bank accounts, admissions in schools or for getting mobile connections. Furthermore the apex court upheld the tabling of Aadhaar as a money bill. Uniqueness was the fundamental difference between Aadhaar and other identity proof. The bench said Aadhaar cannot be duplicated and it was a unique identification, the judges said "We are of the view that there are sufficient safeguards to protect data collected under Aadhaar scheme."
Moreover the apex court struck down Section 57 of
Aadhaar Act which allows private entities to demand Aadhaar to access services
and however, no person will be denied benefits under social welfare scheme
because of the failure of authentication through Aadhaar. The judges said
"We direct the government to ensure that illegal migrants are not issued
Aadhaar," adding that as of today they did not find anything in Aadhaar
Act which violated the right to privacy of individual citizen.
