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The Supreme Court delivered its judgment on the petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar Act. A five-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Justice AK Sikri, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, ruled that Aadhaar will stay, but with conditions.
The verdict on the case was reserved by a constitutional bench earlier this year. Justice Sikri read out the majority verdict.
Here are the 10 key takeaways from the judgment:
1. It is no longer required to link your Aadhaar card to phone numbers and bank accounts. The Supreme Court struck down Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act, which means that private companies cannot insist on Aadhaar details of customers.
2. The Supreme Court has ruled that the Aadhaar card has to be mandatorily linked to one’s PAN card. SC upheld the 139AA of Income Tax Act. It is mandatory to quote Aadhaar/Enrolment ID of Aadhaar application form for filing of return of income.
3. The SC struck down Section 33 (2) of the Aadhaar Act, which permits disclosure of identity information and authentication records for national security.
4. Aadhaar is not mandatory for school admission, Justice Sikri said while reading out the judgment. CBSE, UGC and NEET cannot make Aadhaar mandatory. Children will be given the option to opt out of Aadhaar benefits after becoming adults.
5. The purpose of the Aadhaar Act is legitimate but it is satisfied only if Aadhaar collects minimal data, Justice Sikri observed, and that adequate measures must be in place to protect data. Aadhaar eliminates any chance of duplication, he said.
6. Justice Sikri called the Aadhaar enrolment process foolproof but asked the central government to come up with a stronger data protection law as soon as possible.
7. Aadhaar empowers marginalised sections of society by giving them an identity, Justice Sikri said. The top court said many people benefiting from Aadhaar cannot be denied their rights due to exclusion of a few.
8. Justice Sikri said it is better to be unique than the best and Aadhaar is based on being unique. The architecture of the Aadhaar Act reveals that UIDAI is a statutory body for assigning unique numbers and authentication. Uniqueness is based on submission of demographic and biometric data submission to UIDAI, he said.
9. Justice Sikri said heavy reliance has been put on the privacy judgment of 2017 and that human dignity is already a settled right from an individual’s point of view. He added that profiling is not possible using Aadhaar and that sufficient safeguards are in place to disallow it.
10. The Supreme Court said only an authority above Joint Secretary can take a call on sharing data. There has to be consultation between a secretary-level officer and a sitting or retired judge to decide if data is to be shared in national interest.
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