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RIGHT TO PRIVACY AND DIRECTION FOR MANDATORY AADHAR LINKAGE
Reserve Bank of India has made a statement in October, 2017 that linkage of Aadhaar number to the bank account is mandatory under the Prevention of Money-laundering (Maintenance of Records) Second Amendment Rules, 2017, which has been published in the Official Gazette on June 1, 2017. The government in June had made Aadhaar mandatory for opening bank accounts as well as for any financial transaction of Rs 50,000 and above. Government in Budget 2017 had already mandated seeding of Aadhaar number with Permanent Account Number to avoid individuals using multiple PANs to evade taxes.
If we trace the path covered by this ‘Aadhar’, we can see that it has seen various controversies from the very beginning. UPA Government has introduced unique identification number for Indian citizens in year 2010. This twelve digit identification number is being issued by UIDAI. From the time of its introduction, order has been made for its linkage with many services. In beginning of this year, TRAI recommended Department of Telecommunications to verify SIM cards on the basis of Aadhar, and in furtherance of linkage of mobile numbers with Aadhar numbers was made mandatory by DoT for subscribers. The issue has been raised in Lokniti Foundation v. Union of India in which Supreme Court only addressed the re-verification of existing prepaid mobile Numbers. Recently a writ petition has been filed in the Supreme Court by one activist Dr. Kalyani Menon Sen under Article 32 of the Constitution of India, challenging the mandatory Aadhar linking with one’s bank account to mobile phones. Contention was raised that this order violates the fundamental rights of individual which has been protected under Article 14, Article 19, and Article 21 of the Constitution.
This hue and cry has raised after the Supreme Court’s decision in case of Justice K. S. Puttuswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India. In this case, the Apex Court has recognised Right to Privacy as fundamental right which emerges not only from the guarantee of life and personal liberty under Article 21 but also arises from other freedoms guaranteed under Part III of the Constitution.
Recently, , Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has made it mandatory for individuals to link existing policies with Aadhaar as well as quoting it for buying a new policy.
Now if we look into legislative intent behind Authentication under The Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits And Services) Act, 2016, this has been done to avoid leakage and from instant access to account. Act emphasis on the necessity of the authentication however nowhere word ‘mandatory’ has been used. Act also provides for security and confidentiality of information. Looking into the ‘PROS’ of the linkage, it will avoid any kind of leakage of benefits, benefits like pensions and subsidies etc will be directly transferred, instant access will be available. This mandatory linking will prohibit the evasion of tax by using many PAN cards by one. All services can be used by one unique identification number.
But there are drawbacks among which most important being the privacy concern. Services having different databases are getting linked by a common ID, which makes personal information vulnerable to hacking and government surveillance as demographic and biometric data points are used to create a unique identity of a citizen for authentication. Also making it mandatory would go against the basic principle of criminal law which presumes a person innocent till proven guilty. But here it is like treating one as offender till he or she is proved innocent.
The situation is also very messed up as Supreme Court is of the opinion that linking of Aadhar is not mandatory but optional but at the same time Government is giving orders which makes it compulsory. Additional problem is unawareness among public with respect to benefits of aadhar. Service providers are just flooding the inbox of subscribers with messages for mandatory linking. Keeping in mind the factual situation, there is a need on the part of authorities to address the common people especially rural and illiterate section of population to make them aware of benefits and also to answer there queries. If this is not done and public are under insecurity only option left for them is to ignore and avoid linking Aadhar number with any of the services. Thus instead of being lenient and extending dates, authorities should address general public and ensure them. Whether cons overweight pros of linking or vice versa should be the base for deciding whether it should be made mandatory or voluntary.
