The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre whether it had obtained
presidential nod to start UPA government’s flagship scheme of issuing
Aadhaar cards by the Unique Identification Authority of India.
A three-judge bench posed the query during the hearing of a bunch of
petitions challenging the scheme on the ground it had no "legal
sanctity." It even observed there was nothing wrong if the government
made citizens join the scheme voluntarily and not make it mandatory for
availing welfare schemes.
The court directed SG Mohan Parasaran to explain the legal sanctity of
the project. It fixed February 11 to hear the matter further. SC had on
September 23 given interim orders holding the authorities cannot make
Aadhaar cards mandatory for extending welfare schemes.
Senior advocate Shyam Divan said the scheme made every individual’s life
vulnerable to exploitation since the job of collecting data was given
to private organisations.