Day 34 Arguments

April 26th 2018

Mr. Gopal Sankaranaryanan, representing the Centre for Civil Society, resumed his arguments from Day 33, by saying that Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act violates the right to self-identify, by forcing people to use Aadhaar for avail subsidies. This system rejects other valid forms of identity. He also argued that Section 139 AA of Income Tax (IT) Act which makes Aadhaar-PAN linking compulsory violates the ‘proportionality test’. It makes Aadhaar compulsory for all taxpayers without their informed consent and is not linked to the Consolidated Fund. Thus Section 139AA should be stuck down.

Neeraj Krishna Kaul, appearing for the KUAs and AUAs (Authenticating Agencies), argued that Aadhaar authentication has made life easier for vulnerable and marginalised sections. Microfinance Institutions have a larger reach because of Aadhaar, and through the process of verification, they can reach genuine beneficiaries. He argued that although private players can use Aadhaar verification under Section 57, it can be made more stringent for private players to assuage privacy concerns. He requested the court to not exclude AUAs from verifying through Aadhaar. He submitted that the scope for misuse cannot be a valid ground for striking down a statute.

The matter will be heard on May 2nd 2018.