National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID)
and Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) are structurally linked
Highs Courts of Andhra Pradesh, Punjab
& Haryana questioned legality of 12 digit biometric aadhaar/unique
identification (UID) NUMBER
Supreme Court warns central and state govts against violation of its repeated orders
March 17, 2015: Disregarding Supreme Court’s repeated orders on biometric aadhaar, Election Commission of India has launched its National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Programme (NERPAP), 2015 by linking UIDAI’s Aadhaar data with electoral photo identity card (EPIC) database to be completed by August 15, 2015 and its “Know How to link Your Aadhaar Number with Your EPIC Number” by visiting its portal http://eci.nic.in/eci/nvsp.html. ECI feigns ignorance about privacy concerns about accessing the UIDAI database given the involvement of biometric and surveillance companies of USA, France and other transnational enterprises who are storing and possessing the sensitive personal data of Indians for 7 years as per contract agreements (whose copies have accessed using RTI) in an assault on the sovereignty of citizens and the country. Supreme Court’s bench of Justices J.Chelameswar, S.A.Bobde and C.Nagappan heard the12 digit biometric Aadhaar case on 16th March, 2015 and expressed grave dissatisfaction at defiance of its repeated orders dated September 23, 2013, November 26, 2013 and March 24, 2014. It took cognizance of officials seeking aadhaar. The court asked the Solicitor General of India to write to all chief Secretaries of states to ensure compliance. It asked the Union government to see that there are no violations. It said that if anyone violates it orders it would take severe action including putting violators in jail. The court gave petitioners liberty to file additional affidavits without prior permission of the court and to bring to its notice any violation of its orders. The court also said that it would not accept fait accompli as an argument to retain aadhaar. It has fixed July 13, 215 Monday for next hearing. The hearings would be continuous by the special bench, Monday to Friday. (Election Commission of India’s Press Note and Supreme Court’s order is attached)
Supreme Court warns central and state govts against violation of its repeated orders
March 17, 2015: Disregarding Supreme Court’s repeated orders on biometric aadhaar, Election Commission of India has launched its National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Programme (NERPAP), 2015 by linking UIDAI’s Aadhaar data with electoral photo identity card (EPIC) database to be completed by August 15, 2015 and its “Know How to link Your Aadhaar Number with Your EPIC Number” by visiting its portal http://eci.nic.in/eci/nvsp.html. ECI feigns ignorance about privacy concerns about accessing the UIDAI database given the involvement of biometric and surveillance companies of USA, France and other transnational enterprises who are storing and possessing the sensitive personal data of Indians for 7 years as per contract agreements (whose copies have accessed using RTI) in an assault on the sovereignty of citizens and the country. Supreme Court’s bench of Justices J.Chelameswar, S.A.Bobde and C.Nagappan heard the12 digit biometric Aadhaar case on 16th March, 2015 and expressed grave dissatisfaction at defiance of its repeated orders dated September 23, 2013, November 26, 2013 and March 24, 2014. It took cognizance of officials seeking aadhaar. The court asked the Solicitor General of India to write to all chief Secretaries of states to ensure compliance. It asked the Union government to see that there are no violations. It said that if anyone violates it orders it would take severe action including putting violators in jail. The court gave petitioners liberty to file additional affidavits without prior permission of the court and to bring to its notice any violation of its orders. The court also said that it would not accept fait accompli as an argument to retain aadhaar. It has fixed July 13, 215 Monday for next hearing. The hearings would be continuous by the special bench, Monday to Friday. (Election Commission of India’s Press Note and Supreme Court’s order is attached)
It is noteworthy that the court has denied access to biometric information collected
by Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI). The court has said that UIDAI “is restrained from
transferring any biometric information of any person who has been allotted the
Adhaar number to any other agency without his consent in writing. More so, no
person shall be deprived of any service for want of Aadhaar number in case
he/she is otherwise eligible/entitled. All the authorities are directed to
modify their forms/circulars/likes so as to not compulsorily require the
Aadhaar number in order to meet the requirement of the interim order passed by
this Court forthwith.”
In manifest violation of Court’s order, R S Sharma, Secretary, Department of
Electronics and Information Technology (DEITY), Ministry of Communication and
Information Technology wrote a letter dated August 4, 2014 to the Secretary, Department
of Defence Production, New Delhi asking him to introduce Aadhaar enabled Bio
Metric Attendance System in the department of defence production for which
preparatory steps where to be taken by 10th August, 2014 keeping in view the
urgency. The said letter was sent by Under
Secretary, Minister of Defence to DGQA, DGAQA and other departments that Para 2
of the letter dated 4.8.2014 states that
the proposed system would enable an employee with an Aadhaar number to register
his/her attendance (arrival/ departure ) in the office through biometric
authentication. It also says that a web based application software system will
enable online recording of attendance and that the dash board relating to real
time attendance and related statistics, can be viewed by everyone.
Taking cognizance of the rampant violation of the Supreme Court’s order, Citizens
Forum for Civil Liberties (CFCL) has sent legal notices to the Secretary, DEITY,
Secretary, Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence, Secretary, Union
Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Secretary, Union Ministry of Urban
Development, Special Secretary, Government of Uttar Pradesh, Inspector General of Registration, Department
of Revenue, Government of NCT of Delhi and Durgapur Steel Plant, Steel
Authority of India Limited through its counsel. There are several other departments
and authorities who are violating the orders. Legal notices are being sent to
them as welle. For instance, the following two orders to violate the court’s order-
http://nrega.nic.in/netnrega/
In violation of court’s order Maharashtra Govt’s Cabinet Resolution makes
compulsory Aadhaar for PDS at 52,232 Fair Price Shops at a cost of Rs. 103, 99,
00,000. The resolution is available at: https://www.maharashtra.
The notification of March 9, 2015 from Government of NCT of Delhi compels couples
to get Aadhaar for getting their marriage registered under the Special Marriage
Act. It has also been noted that the Bombay High Court Registrar had recently
received an official communication asking him to make Aadhaar mandatory for
disbursal of salary to staff and even judges. If this continues, the day is not
far when even the present and future judges of the Supreme Court and all the High
Courts and lower courts will be compelled to get themselves biometrically
profiled for Aadhaar.
CFCL has been working on the issue of Unique Identification (UID) Number
branded as “Aadhaar”. It had also appeared in front of Parliamentary Standing
Committee on Finance which examined the National Identification Authority of
India Bill, 2010 and trashed it on several counts including UIDAI’s
questionable exercise of collection of biometric data without any legal mandate.
Secretary, DEITY has sent similar letters to all the ministries and departments
of central government. It is quite bizarre that it has not even spared National
Human Rights Commission, which had given its submission before the Parliamentary
Standing Committee on Finance.
Aadhaar violates human rights, right to privacy as well as other
Constitutional rights, the application of Aadhaar was admittedly restricted to
‘civilian application’ and was not allowed in defence application. The entire
information of the employees working in the department of defence production,
which will include related statistics, will be stored online and on cloud will
be available to everybody. Besides application of biometric aadhaar in the
Department of defence production not being in national interest making it
available to everyone and on the cloud, including to the foreign companies like
M/s L1 Solutions and Accenture violating the court’s order.
It is quite sad that legal minds in the States have not informed their chief
ministers about the grave ramifications of aadhaar. It is
quite strange that so far States have failed to defend erosion of their autonomy
because of centralized databases of biometric data and in resisting the
illegitimate advances of the social control technologies. Citizens and States
must note that it is not a question of aadhaar number
being voluntary or mandatory, which seems to be getting the focus, it is a
question of citizens being turned into subjects using illegal and illegitimate biometric
Aadhaar number which is quite well documented.
States and citizens have failed to appreciate that “several countries including the US, the UK, Australia, China, Canada and Germany have tried such projects but aborted them midway as impractical. The US –arguably the most surveillance prone society in the world – passed a Federal law requiring the States to allow the Federal Department of Homeland Security to access State databases such as drivers’ licences and motor vehicle registration but failed to implement the same.”
States and citizens have failed to appreciate that “several countries including the US, the UK, Australia, China, Canada and Germany have tried such projects but aborted them midway as impractical. The US –arguably the most surveillance prone society in the world – passed a Federal law requiring the States to allow the Federal Department of Homeland Security to access State databases such as drivers’ licences and motor vehicle registration but failed to implement the same.”
The Supreme Court is hearing the cases which have been filed by former
judges, former general, defence scientists and social workers. These include Justice
(retd) K S Puttaswamy, former judge of Karnataka High Court, Major General Sudhir
Vombatkere, Col. Mathew Thomas, Aruna Roy among several others. The cases which
have been filed in High Courts against biometric aadhaar has been transferred
and been clubbed with this case.
On March 10, 2015, Ministry of Home Affairs informed the Lok Sabha that “The
(National Intelligence Grid) NATGRID and Unique Identification Authority of
India (UIDAI) have not been declared as Intelligence Agencies”. It is evident that
this reply is cleverly worded. The fact is that both are interlinked and both are
functioning without any legal framework and parliamentary scrutiny. This information
was shared in reply to a question by Dr. Shashi Tharoor. The fact is that they
are functioning as part of intelligence agencies. When media had asked UIDAI
chief about its link with intelligence agencies, he had responded saying, “No
comments.” Industry documents have unequivocally established that both UIDAI
and NATGRID are linked. In fact, UID policy was first adopted by US Department
of Defence followed by NATO. In a related development Pakistan is making
biometric identification mandatory for purchase of sim cards for mobiles. The
data which was collected by Pakistan’s National Database Registration Authority
(NADRA) was transferred to US agencies according to Wikileaks. It is also apprehended
that the foreign companies which are involved in Pakistan’s biometric
identification program are also involved in India’s biometric aadhaar program.
It may be recalled that after submitting 3.57 crore signatures against Aadhaar/UID to the Prime Minister on March 14, 2012. Parliamentary
Standing Committee on Finance in its report placed before Parliament on
December 13, 2011 observed that UID/Aadhaar project has
been conceptualized “with no clarity of purpose” and “directionless” in its
implementation, leading to “a lot of confusion”. The Standing Committee also
observed that while framing of relevant law is under way, the continuance of
the project is “unethical and violation of Parliament’s prerogatives”. The
collection of biometric and personal data and issuing of UID numbers do not
have any statutory sanction until the Bill is passed by Parliament. In the
absence of a Constitutional provision or legal framework, all the actions of
the UIDAI are technically unconstitutional and illegal. It must be recalled
that meanwhile, a Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court
comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyothi Sengupta and P.V. Sanjay Kumar passed an
order on November 21, 2013 that Aadhaar cannot be made
mandatory. Punjab and Haryana High Court bench headed by
Chief Justice A K Sikri had passed an order March 2, 2013 after hearing a
matter challenging a circular making UID number mandatory. The moment Court raised questions of laws, the circular was withdrawn by
the central government. The decision underlined that UIDAI is legally
assailable and indefensible. Supreme Court
order vindicates the Punjab and Haryana High Court order, report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on
Finance and the Statement of Concern dated September 28, 2010 issued by 17
eminent citizens including late Justice VR Krishna Iyer, Prof Romila Thapar,
late SR Sankaran, Justice AP Shah, late KG Kannabiran, Bezwada Wilson, Aruna
Roy and Prof Upendra Baxi seeking halting of the project. The Parliamentary
Standing Committee on Subordinate Legislation is also seized with the compliant
dated 18.3.2013 on how Subordinate Legislation for Biometric Identity is illegal
& illegitimate and constitutional, legal, historical & technological
reasons against UID number scheme.
Those members of the Union Cabinet who are guilty for passing on the data of
Indians to foreign biometric and surveillance companies must be censured and
held liable and accountable by the Parliament and State legislatures.
For Details: Gopal Krishna, Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties (CFCL), Mb: 09818089660, 08227816731, E-mail:gopalkrishna1715@
For Details: Gopal Krishna, Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties (CFCL), Mb: 09818089660, 08227816731, E-mail:gopalkrishna1715@
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