The future of Aadhaar project was never bright but the Congress government kept on pushing the same despite various constitutional and legal infirmities. Techno legal experts like Praveen Dalal have been warning since 2010 against the use of Aadhaar for various purposes as the project has no legal backing. In fact, Dalal has recommended scrapping of Aadhaar project way back in 2010 and accepting this suggestion could have saved crore of Indian money that was wasted unnecessarily.
Now we have to see whether Narendra Modi government would continue with Aadhaar project or scrap the same. Cjnews India has reported that the centre plans to scrap Aadhaar project as per suggestions of experts like Dalal. Thus, it is safe to presume that in the coming budget session of the parliament no fund would be allocated to Aadhaar project.
Indian economy is facing inflation and sluggishness for long and it makes no sense to waste even a single rupee upon an illegal and unconstitutional project like Aadhaar, opines Dalal. The Narendra Modi led Government must not allocate any further financial resources to Aadhaar and instead use the same for the growth and development of India suggests Dalal.
The Constitutional Validity of Aadhaar Project has already been questioned in the High Courts and Supreme Court of India. The Supreme Court has even held that Aadhaar Card/Number cannot be made mandatory for availing public services in India. The Supreme Court has also prohibited UIDAI from sharing biometric data with Indian Government Agencies without data owner’s consent. Even a Parliamentary Committed rejected the proposed National Identification Authority of India Bill 2010 finding it “Inadequate and Unsuitable”, informs Dalal.
In these circumstances continuance of Aadhaar project would be a big mistake. As the UIDAI has no legal backing, a decision would soon be taken to scrap it and in its place the entire exercise would be handed over to the National Population Register (NPR), which will not only provide Unique ID number to a person but also establish bonafide citizenship. However, the NPR exercise has its own “Demerits and Constitutional Issues” and they must be resolved first, warns Dalal. Simply merging of Aadhaar and NPR biometric data is nit a sensible option, suggests Dalal.
Source: Techno Legal Thoughts.