Digging deeper – What lies beneath our uneasy relationship with Aadhaar

'Aadhaar' in Hindi literally means 'foundation' and your Aadhar card with its 12-digit unique identity number based on your biometric and demographic data, is meant to serve just that function. To work as your ultimate calling card. However, somewhere along the way, banks and mobile companies invited themselves to the party and to your data.

In a report that was published by various news outlets on October 10, banks and mobile companies were deemed ineligible to continue to do Aadhaar e-KYC since the Supreme Court has clearly struck down parts of Section 57, and barred the use of Aadhaar biometrics data by private entities.

This aspect of the laborous judgment is categorical in its firmness and states in no uncertain terms that private companies cannot under any circumstances demand Aadhaar card or number in lieu of their services.

This however does not invalidate the constitutional validity of Aadhaar which the Supreme Court (SC) has upheld. The SC has however cut out the white noise that private entities created around the card by striking down many irrelevant things related to the Aadhar card linkage.

This bit of news does not break any new ground since the SC last month, by a majority decision, struck down parts of Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act. But it does clarify something important that even if a customer is willing and gives his or her consent to a private entity to use Aadhaar, the card can only be used as an ID or address proof like other documents in the manner of a voter's card, driver’s license or a ration card.

The key point here is that biometric verification or e-KYC is out of the question as it would impinge upon the Right to Privacy of such individuals and hence, is unconstitutional.