Supreme Court notice to states

Supreme Court notice to states

Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to all states on a batch of petitions seeking that the Aadhaar scheme be declared as unconstitutional.

A bench, comprising Justice B.S. Chauhan and Justice S.A. Bobde, sought response of the state governments during the final hearing of the petitions filed by K.S. Puttaswamy, retired Judge of Karnataka high court, and others, who alleged that the scheme was unconstitutional as the individuals obtaining the social security numbers were required to part with personal information, such as biometrics, iris and fingerprints, which infringed on their right to privacy – part of the fundamental Right to Life under Article 21 of the Constitution. "How can people think of the right to privacy when they are fighting for sustenance?" the bench asked the petitioners.

Appearing for Mr. Puttaswamy, senior counsel Shyam Divan submitted that there were no safeguards or penalties and no legislative backing for obtaining personal information.

He said the proposed legislation introduced by the government has been rejected by the parliamentary standing committee on finance.

The counsel also said that under the project the act of collecting personal information, even where the individual voluntarily agreed to part with biometric information, was ultra vires. He argued that any action of the state which could impinge on an individual's freedom must be backed by statute and the procedure adopted by the government was arbitrary as there was no informed consent of the individual.

No individual was told about potential misuse of information, the absence of any statutory protection, and the commercial value of the information collected, he submitted, adding that there was the possibility of the information being sold to foreign countries by the private parties.