Aadhar card will not be mandatory for availing benefits of government's welfare schemes, the Supreme Court ruled today as it barred the authorities from sharing personal biometric data collected for enrolment under the scheme.
A Constitution bench of the apex court will also decide the larger question of whether collecting biometric data for preparing Aadhar cards infringed an individual's privacy and if right to privacy was a fundamental right.
"No personal information of Aadhar card shall be shared by any authority," a three-judge bench said and took on record Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi's averment to this effect.
"UIDAI/Aadhar will not be used for any other purposes except PDS, kerosene and LPG distribution system," the bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar said, but made it clear that even for availing these facilities Aadhar card will not be mandatory.
The bench, also comprising Justices S A Bobde and C Nagappan, directed that the information received by UIDAI shall not be used for any other purposes, except in criminal investigation and that too with the permission of the court.
It, however, did not allow the interim pleas of the petitioners, who have challenged the Aadhar scheme, to stop the process of ongoing enrolment.
Earlier in the day, the same bench had referred to a Constitution Bench the batch of petitions challenging the Centre's Aadhar card scheme to decide whether right to privacy is a fundamental right.
The petitioners have claimed that collection and sharing of biometric information, as required under the scheme, is a breach of the "fundamental" right to privacy.
Allowing the Centre's plea, the court framed various questions, including as to whether right to privacy is a fundamental right, to be decided by a Constitution Bench.
"If yes, then what would be contours of the right to privacy," the bench said while referring the matter to Chief Justice H L Dattu for setting up the larger bench.
At an earlier hearing, Rohatgi, while backing the Aadhar card scheme, had contended that right to privacy was not a fundamental right.
"No judgment explicitly cites right to privacy as a fundamental right. It is not there under the letters of Article 21 either. If this court feels that there must be clarity on this subject, only a Constitution Bench can decide," he had said.
