The apex court's judgment comes a month after the week-long day-to-day hearings concluded in May
The fate of a small minority of the Indian population hangs on the Supreme Court's judgment on whether the Centre's unique identity programme, or Aadhaar, will be mandatory to file Income Tax Returns post July 1.
An SC bench comprising Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan will deliver the judgment on a batch of petitions pertaining to the constitutional legality of making Aadhaar compulsory under the Finance Act. According to that Act, passed by the Parliament in the last session of the Lok Sabha, the Permanent Account Number (PAN) of an individual will be invalidated unless the Aadhaar number, or the enrolment number, is quoted while filing tax returns.
The apex court's judgment comes a month after the week-long day-to-day hearings concluded in May.
Lifting the curtains on the ambiguity on the voluntariness of enrolment, the NDA-led Centre had submitted that Aadhaar will be mandatory for all. Defending the Centre's ambitious identification system, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi added that Aadhaar was a more robust and fool-proof method when compared to PAN cards.
Addressing the elephant in the room, the AG said, "In this world, there is no concept of reasonable privacy." He essentially submitted that if one wanted to live in a civilised society and not like a hermit in the Himalayas, then one would have to deal with intrusion into one's privacy.
The AG had further argued that an individual did not have absolute right to his body. "No right is absolute, right to body is not absolute. Under extreme cases, even the right to life can be taken away, under due process," the AG said. "Biometric is classified as sensitive public information. You might want to be forgotten, but the state does not want to forget you. Biometric will not to be shared, unless per procedures laid down under the law. Authorities shall ensure security, confidentiality of data."
...& ANALYSIS
- The govt’s efforts to make Aadhaar mandatory for filing I-T returns is based on the argument that it is a more fool-proof system than PAN cards.
- But there are concerns that the unique identification number would give the govt too much access to an individual’s private details, though the govt has contested this.
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