NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday is scheduled to hear a petition seeking a direction to India’s Unique Identification Authority to issue new Aadhaar cards only to citizens up to the age of six, and set strict guidelines for issuing them to teenagers and adults to prevent hackers from masquerading as Indian citizens.
As per the Supreme Court’s list of reasons issued on May 4, the petition will be submitted for hearing before a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalia Bagchi.
The public interest litigation filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay also sought a direction to the authorities to install display boards at shared service centers stating that the 12-digit unique identification number is merely a “proof of identity” and not a proof of nationality, address or date of birth.
Along with all states and union territories, the appeal has been submitted to UIDAI which is the authority that issues Aadhaar and the ministries of home, law, justice, electronics and IT as parties.
The petition, filed by advocate Ashwani Dubey, said Aadhaar, which was originally intended as proof of identity, has increasingly become a “foundational document” that enables individuals to obtain other identity documents, such as ration cards, housing certificates and voter ID cards.
“UIDAI has issued Rs 144 crore Aadhaar and 99 per cent of Indians have registered. Therefore, the petitioner files this petition as a PIL under Article 32, and seeks a direction to UIDAI to issue new Aadhaar only for children and frame new strict guidelines for teenagers and adults, so as to prevent hackers from obtaining it and masquerading as Indian citizens,” it said.
She said the need to file the petition arose when the petitioner came to know the way hackers could get access to Aadhaar through a weak and easily manipulated verification process.
“Foreigners apply for Aadhaar under the ‘Foreigner’ category. But hackers apply for Aadhaar under the ‘Indian Citizen’ category and get it easily. After that, they get a ration card, birth and residence certificate, driving license, etc., so that they are basically indistinguishable from Indian citizens….”
Besides looking for other directions, the petition raised legal questions, including whether the 2016 Aadhaar Act has been rendered “temporarily unconscionable” by failing to keep pace with the legislative intent of discriminating between foreigners and Indian nationals.
She said the alleged misuse of Aadhaar undermines targeted social welfare delivery and leads to diversion of public resources.
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