AADHAAR

Aadhaar card consist of a unique 12 digit number, generated after scanning a person
biometrically i.e. fingerprints and retina scan. It also includes address of the holder
overleaf and a QR code which can be scanned digitally. The card is attained only
after successful application and then approval from the authority (UIDAI). The
authority mails the card to the applicants, but one can also download a PDF copy
from the authority's website. It should be noted that physical presence of card is not
required to avail the attached benefits of the card.
Aadhar was invented abroad and implemented one or two decades before India.
Governments at international level are studying what is good happening in other
countries and introduce for them. The world saw the equivalent of Aadhar being
implemented with biometrics abroad, while India did not have that but had duplicate
passports, benami properties & bank accounts, multiple volter IDs, ration cards etc.
We had suffered a lot during its implementation such as our bank accounts got frozen
and activated only after a self-attested copy of the ID was presented etc. In addition
to whichever govt had proposed the Aadhar, Mr Modi deserves all the praise for
forcefully implementing the Aadhar to eradicate all the mal-practices of multiple &
false documents. For those who are straight forward, there is no problem with
Aadhar, but there are vested interest who are fighting it tooth and nail.
Tax evaders who have multiple PAN cards and multiple bank accounts based on
those duplicate PANs could be easily identified if Aadhar is linked.
As NRI, I had myself seen the great advantage and hope that Aadhar will in the same
way bring benefit to our nation, where even a dead man’s voter ID could be used for
voting, which is impossible if Aadhar is successfully implemented.The introduction
of aadhar demolished all the ill practices. The Aadhaar project has been linked to
some public subsidy and unemployment benefit schemes such as the domestic LPG
scheme and MGNREGA. In these Direct Benefit Transfer schemes, the subsidy
money is directly transferred to a bank account which is Aadhaar-linked.[93][94]
Previously, however, the direct-benefit transfer had been carried out quite
successfully via the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system, which did
not depend on Aadhaar. The government's own data, however, suggest that the cost
of implementing the DBT for LPG was over a million dollars, a figure quite at odds
with the savings figures that the government cites.[100]

Prime Minister Modi has asked for integration of all land records with Aadhaar at the
earliest, emphasising at his monthly PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance And Timely
Implementation) meeting on 23 March 2016 that this was extremely important to
enable monitoring of the successful implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal
Bima Yojana or crop insurance scheme.

They recruited Nandan Nilekani from Infosys in June,2009, after winning the
elections, as head of UIDAI. One of the foremost thing Nandan did was he gave a
brand name to it, after some ground work, calling it “Aadhaar”. He also declared that
aadhaar enrollment will be voluntary.

Congress government in 2006, came up with a scheme of giving “Unique ID for

below poverty line citizens(PDS consumers)”. It was thought about as a way of
removing duplicate and fake entries and accounts in beneficiary database for PDS in
the country. They proposed use of biometrics and having a common electronic
database where no person will be allotted two IDs.

The Aadhaar project was initiated as an attempt towards having a single, unique
identification document or number that would capture all the details, including
demographic and biometric information, of every resident Indian individual.
Currently there are a plethora of identity documents in India including passports,
permanent account numbers (PANs), driving licenses and ration cards. The Aadhaar
card / UID will not replace these identification documents but can be used as the sole
identification proof when applying for other things. It will also serve as the basis for
Know Your Customer (KYC) norms used by banks, financial institutions, telecom
firms and other businesses that maintain customer profiles. Aadhaar numbers will
eventually serve as the basis for a database with which disadvantaged Indian
residents can access services that have been denied to them due to lack of
identification documents
The main purpose of adhere is to deliver various benefits to the citizen of India,
including the LPG subsidy and MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act) wages. The government is now planning to link the PDS
(Public Distribution System) subsidy with the Aadhar card. Second, the card can also
serve as a nationally acceptable identity card. And the third, To curb illegal
immigration to the country.
CONTROVERSIES ON AADHAR

1. THE BIOMETRIC SYSTEM OF AADHAAR

The biometric data system of Aadhaar Card Scheme involves a collection of

fingerprints with iris scans, which is claimed by UIDAI to be safe and secure.
Although this being a misleading concept as disparities also evolve here, where the
biometric information is involved in some unlawful use, leading to infringement of
privacy.

 There are many problems associated with the biometric system as Section 6
of the Aadhaar Act says that the Aadhaar Number holders need to update
their biometric data once in a while following the rules and regulations
mentioned in the Act.
 Also, in section 31(2), there is provision for alteration of the biometric data
if it is lost or changed. Thus, these sections in toto deny the claims of
Aadhaar scheme that it is a once done, totally done scheme. The other issue
is when should a person go for an update or when can he realise that shape
of his fingers and iris is changed due to some bodily changes.
 Also, there is no proper method defined to make these changes as section 19
is totally vague in this aspect.
These were some problems associated with the biometric system of Aadhaar Scheme
the other issues are about the violation of the right to privacy and what happens when
someone steals your identity, which shall be discussed further.

2. WHAT IF SOMEONE STEALS ONE’S IDENTITY FROM UIDAI’S

SRVER

 Hacking is quite prevalent so hackers could have access to such

biometric information of citizens and can also alter the image. Small and
minimal changes can be done to fool and the UIDAI’s specially
designed technology cannot save it.
 The faking of biometrics is very easy as fingerprints can be obtained in
any manner by extracting it from anywhere the person has touched and
then preparing a dead replica of the finger and once used in an
unauthorized manner they cannot be used again.

In November 2017, the UIDAI asserted that the AADHAR data is safe and secure
without any data leak or breach at UIDAI. In January 2018, The Tribune newspaper
reported that it has “purchased” a service on WhatsApp from an anonymous seller
that provided unrestricted access to the details of any Aadhaar number from a billion.
The seller took just Rs 500, paid through Paytm , and took 10 minutes for creating a
gateway and then provided a login ID and password with which one can access any
person” address, email, phone number. Also the Tribune team paid Rs 300 and the
seller provided them with a software which enabled them to print the Aadhaar.
An IIT graduate was arrested for illegally accessing the Aadhaar database back in
august 2017 without authorization.  He created an app called ‘Aadhaar eKYC’ by
hacking into the servers related to an ‘e-Hospital system’ that was created under the
Digital India initiative. The eKYC app would then route all the requests through
those servers.

INFRINGEMENT OF PRIVACY

Discussing how can it lead to a violation of privacy is by providing such information

to many governmental and non-governmental organisations which then receive the
biometric information of an individual which can further be exploited for any
purpose.

The sharing of biometric information of a person leads to an infringement of privacy

as the biometric data contains information relating to a person’s’ iris and fingers and
any such sharing would result in the sharing of DNA information of a person. Such
personal information can always be used against a person by other organisations to
authenticate things in the name of people who do not possess those physical features.
Every person has a right over his body and distribution of the information of his eyes
and fingers can lead to duplication and fatal results for the individual also causing an
infringement of Right to Privacy.

Finger imitations can also be produced if someone takes information about a person’s
finger and its details and produces a dummy finger to authenticate any sim service
and thereby leading to fraud. Thus, this is taking away the right of a person to keep
the information of his body parts private from other people.
 JUDGMENT FOR AADHAR CARD

The Supreme Court on 26 September 2018 upheld the constitutional validity of

Aadhar in a 4:1 majority judgement (by then Chief Justice of India Justice Dipak
Mishra, Justice AK Sikri, Justice AM khanwilkar, Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice
DY Chandrachud) but struck down and read down certain section of the Aadhar Act.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
Here are the big takeaways from the Supreme Court judgment.
The Supreme Court struck down Section 57 of the Aadhar Act. Section 57 allows not
only the state but also ‘any body, Corporate or person’ or Private entity to demand
Aadhar from citizens for the purpose of identification.
It is based on the provision that the mobile companies private service providers were
seeking Aadhar for identification. So private entities cannot demand Aadhar to access
services. No Aadhar for obtaining or retaining of mobile connections
In fact, Justice Chandrachud in his dissenting opinion held that Aadhar number shall
be deleted forthwith by the Telecom Companies.
No, mandatory Aadhar for the opening of bank accounts.
The court also clarified the benefits and services. Under section 7 should be of the
nature welfare scheme targeted at a particular deprived community. Section 7
pertains to proof of Aadhar number necessary for receipt of certain subsidies benefits
and services etc.
WHICH IN EFFECT MEANS
School admission do not qualify as a benefit under section 7 SO NO AADHAR FOR
SCHOOL ADMISSION.
 No mandatory Aadhar for CBSE, NEET, UGC for enforcement under Sarva
Siksha Abhiyan and other education scheme that demands Aadhar, the
Supreme Court held that it cannot be made mandatory.
Justice Chandrachud minority dissenting opinion held the entire section 7 as
unconstitutional.
SO WHAT WILL AADHAR MANDATORY FOR?
PAN CARDS and Income Tax Returns (ITR). Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act
has been upheld mandating Aadhar-PAN linkage. The section made it mandatory for
Income Tax assess to quote their Aadhar number in their tax return and link it to their
PAN.
To avail Government benefits or welfare schemes the funding for which comes from
consolidated fund of India for instance LPG Subsidy or to access ration through the
Public Distribution System AADHAR WOULD BE MANDATORY.

But what about the document fact of exclusion that many people were denied benefits
because of failure in Biometric Authentication.
The Supreme Court majority held that there are a lot of people who will benefit due
to inclusion cannot be denied due to exclusion of a few. The court said we cannot
throw the baby out with bathwater, the court held that the exclusion is concerning and
that is not trivialising exclusion but has taken on record the statement of the Attorney
General that NO ONE WILL BE DEPRIVED and also have provided guidelines to
prevent and minimise exclusion.
Suitable provision the court held have to be made with regulations to establish
identity when authentication fails.

Judgment of court on validity of adhar card

A five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court has upheld by a 4-1 majority the
validity of the Aadhaar Act, putting the seal of approval on the world’s largest
biometric identification exercise. 

Wednesday’s Supreme Court Aadhaar ruling has highlighted two main aspects of the
unique identification project — one, Aadhaar as digital identity infrastructure and,
two, its application as public infrastructure for various purposes. On the first aspect, 
the majority judgment has upheld the validity of the project, and stated that the
architecture of Aadhaar, and the provisions of the Aadhaar Act, do not tend to create
a surveillance state. However, the judgment has also red-flagged several applications
of Aadhaar that do not meet the test of proportionality, such as the linking of Aadhaar
with mobile number and bank accounts, and declared them unconstitutional.
Supream view on creation of surveillances state :-
The majority verdict of four judges says the manner in which the Aadhaar project
operates, ensures that the provisions of the Aadhaar Act “do not tend to create a
surveillance state”. During the enrolment process, “minimal biometric data in the
form of iris and fingerprints is collected”, and the Unique Identification Authority of
India (UIDAI) — which oversees the Aadhaar enrolment exercise — “does not
collect purpose, location or details of the transaction”. During the enrolment process,
“minimal biometric data in the form of iris and fingerprints is collected”, and the
Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) — which oversees the Aadhaar
enrolment exercise — “does not collect purpose, location or details of the
transaction”. The suggestion that Aadhaar would create a surveillance state was “not
well founded”, the judgment says, “and in any case, taken care of by the diffluence
exercise carried out with the striking down certain offending provisions in their
present form”.
In his minority judgment, Justice D Y Chandrachud said that from the verification
log, it was possible to locate the places of transactions carried out by an individual
over the past five years. The majority verdict has, however, said that authentication
logs should be deleted after six months, instead of the five years required under the
existing regulations. Justice Chandrachud also noted that it was possible to track an
individual’s location through the Aadhaar database, even without the verification log.
“The architecture of Aadhaar poses a risk of potential surveillance activities through
the Aadhaar database,” he said.
View of court on security of biometric data:-
The majority judgment underlines that UIDAI has mandated only registered devices
to conduct biometric-based authentication transactions. With the use of these
registered devices, the biometric data is encrypted within the device using a key, and
is, therefore, captured live. Before returning to the application being used by the
service provider, the registered device blocks the personal identity data by encrypting
it.
This creates a unidirectional relationship between the host application and the
UIDAI. The use of registered devices in Aadhaar authentication, therefore, rules out
any possibility of the use of stored biometric, or the replay of biometrics captured
from another source. Further, as per the regulations, authentication agencies are not
allowed to store the biometrics captured for Aadhaar authentication.
However, the judgment has questioned certain provisions of the Act on the grounds
of privacy. Section 57 is one example — it has said that the provision which enables
corporate bodies and individuals to also seek authentication, that too on the basis of a
contract between the individual and such bodies or persons, would impinge upon the
right to privacy of the individual.
The court has upheld Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act which stated Aadhar is mandatory
for any government scheme that draws out of the consolidated fund of India. This
means that if you want to avail benefits such as ration, LPG subsidy, MGNREGA,
you have to furnish your Aadhaar number or your Aadhaar enrollment ID.
The court has also made it clear that an individual has to furnish their Aadhaar
number or the enrollment ID while filing Income Tax returns. It has also made
Aadhaar-PAN card linking mandatory as well as the requirement of Aadhaar when
applying for PAN card. This is an indirect link to banks, where PAN card number is
mandatory. It is this part that, in a way, makes it mandatory for you to obtain an
Aadhaar number.