Should You Have Aadhaar & Be Forced To Link It Everywhere? Supreme Court Will Decide Tomorrow

Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will make a decision on one of India¡¯s biggest cases in recent history.

A bench will decide on a case running since January, that of whether the Aadhaar identification system is a violation of our Constitutional Right to Privacy.

The hearing began on January 17 this year, before the Constitution Bench composed of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AK Sikri, AM Khanwikar, DY Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan.

Later, after 38 days of hearings, the Supreme Court reserved its judgement in an order issued May 10. During that phase, the bench heard 29 petitions challenging the Aadhaar Card system¡¯s constitutional validity based on various claims of violating people¡¯s rights.

So far, thanks to strong pushes from the government, over a billion Indians have signed up for an Aadhar card. The government has pushed for adoption of the system by stressing it¡¯s universal identification property, as well as how secure it supposedly is.

Unfortunately, Aadhaar has been plagued by security breaches, both on the citizen side as well as the government side, leading to many being fearful of their personal data being stolen. After all, the system gathers everything from your contact details, to your family members, to even your biometrics. And even if that weren¡¯t the case, the government has also compulsorily tied many services to Aadhaar verification, something most experts say it has no legal right to do.

Chief Justice Dipak Misra

Whether or not the Supreme Court rules against the Aadhaar system tomorrow probably deepens more on legal precedent than anything else. Just in 2017, it had ruled that the right to privacy is an ¡°intrinsic part of life and personal liberty¡± guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution. If the bench sees the compulsory gathering of biometric data for an Aadhaar card as a violation of that privacy, it could end up overturning the entire system.

Either way, this is already the second longest-running case before the Supreme Court, so we can only hope it¡¯s not going to stretch out any longer.