SC order on Aadhaar: BJP, Cong claim victory

Both the BJP and the Congress Wednesday sought to claim victory over the Supreme Court's verdict on Aadhaar biometric system with the ruling party's chief Amit Shah mocking Rahul Gandhi's contention that it supported his party's vision, saying the "Congress won today, just like they won Lok Sabha polls in 2014".

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra upheld the constitutional validity of 'Aadhar' but restricted government's push to make it mandatory for various services including for bank accounts, mobile connections or school admissions.

Immediately after the pronouncement of the verdict, both the parties used it to claim that it was a vindication of their respective positions on the contentious issue which triggered nationwide debate on privacy concerns. While the BJP called the judgement a big victory for the "pro-poor" Modi government, the Congress asserted that the court striking down several provisions of the biometric system is a "slap" on the NDA government.

Citing comments of Justice D Y Chandrachud, who wrote the judgement separately that passage of the Aadhaar law as money bill, bypassing the Rajya Sabha, amounted to a "fraud on the Constitution", Congress leader Kapil Sibal said, "We will approach a seven-judge bench to consider this verdict again as this is clearly not a money bill."