SC to hear on Oct 6 pleas seeking changes in order on Aadhaar

New Delhi: The RBI and SEBI, along with the governments of Gujarat and Jharkhand, Tuesday sought clarification and modifications in a Supreme Court order that Aadhaar card will not be mandatory for availing benefits of various welfare schemes.

A bench of Justices J Chelameswar, S A Bobde and C Nagappan, while agreeing to hear on October 6 a batch of pleas, however raised the question whether it can entertain such interim applications after transferring the main petitions to a constitution bench to decide issues like right to privacy.

"The question raised is this: Can we deal with it after referring the matters to constitution bench," the court asked.

The RBI sought clarification as to whether an account can be opened in a bank on the basis of the Aadhar card for providing the benefit of pension or for getting paid for MNREGA.

SEBI wanted to use the Aadhaar cards in the securities market to know whether the persons were active in the markets.

Raising issues similar to the RBI, Jharkhand, in its plea, today sought to use Aadhaar cards in payments of pension and seek a declaration from pensioners that they are alive.

Similarly, Gujarat also wanted to use these cards to identify target beneficiaries of its welfare schemes.

The Supreme Court had earlier said that Aadhaar card will not be mandatory for availing benefits of welfare schemes.

It had however also said that authorities may use Aadhaar cards in PDS scheme and "in particular for the purpose of distribution of food grains, etc and cooking fuel, such as kerosene. The Aadhaar card may also be used for the purpose of the LPG Distribution Scheme."

Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Gujarat, said that people are free to live wherever they want, but the government will have to find ways to identify target groups or persons for extending benefits of the welfare schemes.

"If I have to identify the persons for granting benefits, I will have to find some ways to do so," he said, adding that the Government, as trustee of public funds, needs to identify target beneficiaries.

The court has now asked the two states, RBI and SEBI to serve copies of their pleas to the petitioners who have challenged the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar card scheme.

Earlier, the Supreme court, while terming Aadhaar as optional, had barred the authorities from sharing personal biometric data collected for enrolment under the scheme.

The bench had also passed a slew of directions for the Centre till the matter was "finally decided by a larger Bench".

It had also referred to Chief Justice H L Dattu the batch of petitions challenging the Aadhaar card scheme to constitute a larger constitution Bench which would decide whether right to privacy constitutes a fundamental right.

The petitioners had claimed that collection and sharing of biometric information, as required under the scheme, is a breach of the "fundamental" right to privacy.

The bench was hearing a batch of pleas against decisions of some states to make Aadhaar cards compulsory for a range of activities including payment of salary, provident fund disbursement, marriage and property registration.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), established by the UPA-2 in 2009, issues Aadhaar cards to the citizens.

Under the programme, every citizen is to be provided with a 12-digit unique identification number for which biometric information is collected.