Congress to move court if Aadhaar amendments are brought as a Money Bill

Both the Congress, as well as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), welcomed the verdict as a win for their respective visions of Aadhaar, and a loss for the other side

The Congress has said it will move the Supreme Court (SC) if the Narendra Modi-led government amends the Aadhaar Act by bringing it as a money Bill and bypassing discussions in the Rajya Sabha.

Congress leader Kapil Sibal said the Congress supported the dissenting judgment by Justice D Y Chandrachud, who said the Aadhaar Act could not have been passed as money Bill, as it amounted to 'a fraud on the Constitution'. “We will approach a seven-judge Bench to consider this verdict again as this is clearly not a money Bill,” he said.

Law and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the SC upheld that the Aadhaar legislation was a money Bill. The government has pushed Aadhaar as a money Bill in 2016, which meant that only the Lok Sabha could vote on it. The government continues to be a minority in the Rajya Sabha.

Sibal said his party welcomed the judgment as it struck down the right to the private sector to collect Aadhaar numbers and that the government could no longer collect details on the grounds of national security, and it will now have to approach courts in such cases. 

"It is such a massive win for the people, as the judgment has given individuals the right to move courts if there is a violation of rights under the Aadhaar Act," he said. Earlier, only the Unique Identification Authority of India could move courts.

Sibal, however, said there were millions of marginalised people whose biometrics are not clear, either because they are old or work with their hands, which leads to denial of benefits. He said other identification should be acceptable to the government, and the Congress might also move court on this issue.

In a cautionary warning to the framers of the Aadhaar architecture, Sibal said the prime minister, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, and others have violated the law themselves, and done 'immeasurable harm to the country'.

“The future generations will ensure that the people who have allowed this to happen should actually be brought to book because whatever (data) has been collected is illegal, and now the SC has said it is illegal,” Sibal said.

The Rajya Sabha MP said the government used Aadhaar for the purposes of implementing the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, which he said was shocking. Sibal also said the party may move a petition for deletion of data already in the hands of private players.