SC allows UIDAI CEO to make PowerPoint presentation in court on Aadhaar

New Delhi: Supreme Court allowed Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey to make PowerPoint presentation in court on Aadhaar scheme at 2.30 pm on Thursday.

The apex court has asked petitioners opposed to Aadhaar scheme to prepare questionnaire after UIDAI CEO's PowerPoint presentation.

Centre on Wednesday urged a five judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra to allow UIDAI CEO to make a powerpoint presentation to the court to allay the apprehensions about the Aadhaar scheme.

Attorney General K K Venugopal, who started the arguments for the Centre, said the CEO would answer queries of the bench on all issues like surveillance, data security and exclusion and sought the nod for it tomorrow.

The bench, which also comprised Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, asked Venugopal to submit the details of the presentation in "word format" and said it would take the decision today.

"If your only goal is identification, then there are less invasive means to ensure identification (of citizens). Where is the necessity to aggregate and centralise the data," the bench asked the Centre.

The bench then gave the example of Singapore and said every person there has to get a chip-based ID card and his or her personal information remains with the person and not with the government authorities.

The Attorney General said "all this will be explained by the CEO of the UIDAI in his presentation tomorrow and moreover, aggregation of data is not possible in Aadhaar".

With PTI Inputs