The Supreme Court will pass an order on a batch of petitions seeking temporary ease from compulsory linking of Aadhaar with bank accounts, mobile phone numbers, and other services today. The order is likely to address the limited question of an extension of a deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar with various services. The court will start the hearing arguments on the sustainability of Aadhaar on 10 January. After prolonged attempts by the petitioners for an early hearing on this issue of mandatory Aadhaar linking, Constitution Bench of five judges—Chief Justice, Dipak Misra, justices D.Y. Chandrachud, A.K. Sikri, A.M. Khanwilkar and Ashok Bhushan—was constituted on 13 December.
Justice Chandrachud said, “Section 7 empowers the government to make it compulsory, but whether it is for services or benefits is a separate question” and that the proviso has a direct nexus with the Consolidated Fund of India.
Section 7 says that the Central or State Government may…require Aadhaar from persons receiving subsidy, benefit or service for which the expenditure is incurred from, or the receipt therefrom forms part of, the Consolidated Fund of India.
Subramaniam said, “Can section 7 impose a compulsion overriding an order of the court? What matters to me is the paramountcy of the court, the judicial process…The spirit of the court order was that citizens were insulated against any sort of compulsion…there is a basis for these orders. That cannot be removed by legislation.”
He also added, “If the basis is intertwined with voluntariness and fundamental dignity of individuals, the court order is protecting the fundamental rights of citizens. Such an order cannot be abrogated which is why this Act is an encroachment on the judicial process.” The court pointed out that the order referred to was before the Aadhaar Act of 2016.
Subramaniam concluded by saying, “If HIV patients are being denied retroviral treatment in the country because they don’t have Aadhaar, it is a sad situation.”
