NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked the Centre to respond to a plea asking if missing children could be traced by using Aadhaar biometrics, why could the same system not be used to identify the dead.
A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao asked the Centre and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to respond to the application by February 5, the next date of hearing.
Social activist Amit Sahni had filed the petition seeking the court’s direction to the Centre and the UIDAI to utilise Aadhaar biometrics to identify unidentified dead bodies. Sahni, in his application, has referred to some recent news reports in which the UIDAI claimed to have traced more than 500 children by using Aadhaar biometrics.
In the previous hearing, the UIDAI had informed the court that it was technically not possible to match the fingerprints of an unidentified body with the biometrics of 120 crore people stored in its database.
The main petition sought a direction to the Centre, the UIDAI, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and the states to scan the biometrics of unidentified bodies and process them with the Aadhaar portal to trace any pre-existing biometric details.
In his petition, Sahni also sought directions to the Centre and the Unique Identification Authority of India to share the pre-existing Aadhaar details, if any, without any delay with the NCRB and the states for the identification of dead bodies.
5 more Hashimpura convicts surrender
New Delhi: Five more convicts in the 1987 Hashimpura massacre case surrendered before Delhi’s Tis Hazari court on Tuesday. On November 22, four out of 15 jawans belonging to the Uttar Pradesh Provincial Armed Constabulary (UPPAC) had surrendered before Tis Hazari court. On October 31, the Delhi High Court had sentenced 16 policemen to life imprisonment for killing 42 people of a minority community in Uttar Pradesh in what later came to be known as the 1987 Hashimpura massacre case. The high court held that the massacre was targeted killing of unarmed and defenceless people by the police.
Court acquits Satyendar Jain in rioting case
New Delhi: A local court on Tuesday acquitted Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain in a five-year-old rioting case. Additional Chief Magistrate Samar Vishal acquitted the minister and four other Aam Aadmi Party volunteers, saying the prosecution witnesses failed to identify Jain, the health minister’s lawyer Mohammad Irshad said. Jain was accused of rioting in Paschim Vihar area in 2013 just before the Delhi Assembly election. Jain was arrested and charged with rioting and obstructing public servants from discharging their duty during a protest in the wake of a rape case. In the order issued by the court, it was mentioned that no public servant had appeared in person to prove than he or she was obstructed by the health minister. Police had booked Jain and others under various sectionof the IPC.