SC's Constitution Bench to resume hearing in Aadhaar matter

The Supreme Court's five-judge Constitution bench on Thursday will continue hearing pleas filed with regards to the Aadhaar matter.

The bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra will begin hearing a number of petitions filed challenging the constitutional validity of the identification number.

Earlier on Wednesday, senior lawyer Shyam Divan argued that the Aadhaar Card may cause the death of citizens' civil rights.

Divan, who is appearing for the petitioners, told the bench that a people's constitution was being converted into a state's Constitution, adding that it was incorrect to take people's biometric data for Aadhaar Card.

Since the inception of the Aadhaar card, its validity and possible leakages of data have surfaced time and again. The apex court has also received petitions regarding the linkage of this 12-digit number with mobile phones, bank accounts and so on, the last date for which was extended to March 31 this year.

Recently, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) decided to enable 'Face Authentication' infusion mode on registered devices by July 1, so that people facing difficulty in other existing modes of verification such as fingerprints, iris, and one-time-password (OTP) could easily authenticate.