SC to hear Facebook's plea for transfer of Aadhaar-profile linking pleas on Tuesday

The Supreme Court has deferred the hearing on a plea filed by Facebook seeking transfer to it the petitions pending before different high courts, demanding to interlink of Aadhar database with social media profiles for identity authentication.

Several petitions are pending before Madras, Bombay and Madhya Pradesh High Courts seeking their direction for the interlinking of Aadhaar data with social media accounts.

The social media giant had filed the petition last week.

After a brief hearing, a bench headed by Justice Deepak Gupta said it would hear the matter on Tuesday.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi appearing for Facebook Inc told the court that transfer of petitions would avoid conflicting decisions from the four common cases pending in high courts.

"Avoiding conflicting decisions is particularly necessary to ensure that users are afforded equal privacy protections across India", the petition read.

Attorney General KK Venugopal, who represented the Centre, informed the court that 18 hearings have taken place so far before Madras High Court and cases are nearing for final hearing.

Final judgement can be challenged before the apex court, he told the bench.

Apart from other petitions, two writ petitions were filed in the Madras High Court in July 2018.