Aadhaar: The proof which isn’t quintessential anymore

Aadhaar is the largest biometric identity card system. Aadhar card was issued to more than 1.22 billion Indians as of July 2018. The recent case in Supreme court was against the use of Aadhar card in private entities such as performing KYC for the Wallet accounts, enrolling children in school and even buying a mobile SIM card. The main pointer of the case was this usage has opened a breach against the privacy of individuals.

The Supreme court upheld the validity of the Aadhaar card. The verdict says that Aadhaar is essential for PAN and ITR filing, but asking it as a mandatory document for opening bank accounts and mobile phone connections are absolutely unnecessary because Aadhaar is devoid of the robust mechanism to get consent from the citizen before collecting the biometric and demographic data. The four-one majority judgement further added that there is an acute risk of surveillance of people’s data and can be misused.

While few individuals who don’t go lengths to link Aadhaar to every digital document are relieved by this verdict, whereas people who require the card for their vitalities such as availing subsidies and buying ration goods are not convinced by this verdict.