Aadhaar tool to stifle dissent, SC told

TT, 17 January 2018, New Delhi: A five-judge constitution bench that on Wednesday began hearing petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Aadhaar was told that the scheme enables the government to stifle dissent, influence political decision-making, was reminiscent of totalitarian regimes and reduced people to servitude.

Appearing for former Karnataka High Court judge K. Puttaswamy and some others, senior advocate Shyam Divan told the bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra that the Aadhaar scheme had several glitches and improbables as at least 6.23 crore people were excluded from enrolment after they applied for duplicate cards.

Many people apply for such cards either because of change of address or loss of the original. However, when they apply for duplicate cards, the Aadhaar authentification process fails to acknowledge them, thus denying them various benefits as the government has made it mandatory to link Aadhaar cards with bank accounts, mobile phones and other services, Divan said.

"The petitioners are certain that if the Aadhaar Act and programme is allowed to operate unimpeded it will hollow out the Constitution, particularly the great rights and liberties it assures to citizens. A people's Constitution will transform into a State Constitution," the senior advocate told the bench, which also includes Justices A.K. Sikri, A.M. Khanwilkar, D.Y. Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan.

"The government has rolled out a little-understood programme that seeks to tether every resident of India to an electronic leash. This leash is connected to a central database that is designed to track transactions across the life of the citizen. This record will enable the State to profile citizens, track their movements, assess their habits and silently influence their behaviour," Divan added.

"Over time, the profiling enables the State to stifle dissent and influence political decision-making. As the Aadhaar platform extends to private corporations, the degree of tracking and extent of profiling will exponentially increase. Several state governments have started using the Aadhaar platform to build profiles of residents that is reminiscent of totalitarian regimes," the advocate said.

Justice Chandrachud asked: "Can't the state implement the Aadhaar programme... in public interest?"

Divan replied: "Aadhaar destroys the identity of an individual and it has made the country a surveillance state, which is not permissible under the Constitution.

"The Aadhaar database compromises on national security as there is no free consent in permitting biometric information, and diminishes the rights of the citizens."

Divan referred to the recent judgment of a nine-judge bench of the apex court that recognised the right to privacy as a fundamental right.

He complained that the government issues an Aadhaar number and then requires it to be embedded across service providers. Unless the number is seeded in the database of the service provider, the citizen is denied access to "these essential facilities", Divan said.

"The State is empowered with a 'switch' by which it can cause the civil death of an individual. Where every basic facility is linked to Aadhaar and one cannot live in society without an Aadhaar number, the switching off of Aadhaar completely destroys the individual," Divan said.

The counsel said that while the Constitution balanced the rights of individuals against the State's interests, Aadhaar completely upsets it and skews the relationship between citizen and State, enabling the government to totally dominate the individual.

"The Constitution of India is not a charter of servitude. Aadhaar, if allowed to roll out unimpeded, reduces citizens to servitude," Divan said.

The arguments will resume on Thursday. As there are 37 petitioners, the case is likely to be heard for over three weeks.