The constitution bench of the Supreme Court has started delivering its judgment on the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar Act. The majority judgment penned by Justice AK Sikri, for Chief Justice Misra, himself and Justice AM Khanwilkar, has made the following key observations:
- The purpose of the Aadhaar scheme is inclusion and thus it serves a higher purpose
- Section 57, which allows private companies to use Aadhaar, has been struck down.
- Section 33(2) which allows information to be shared for national security purposes has also been struck down.
- A robust data protection regime needs to be put in place to ensure security of the data.
- It is difficult to believe that profiling can be done with such little biometric data.
- CBSE cannot insist on Aadhaar. Children at the time of majority will have the option to exclude themselves from Aadhaar
- Aadhaar could have been passed as money bill