New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday sought response from the Centre by September 24 on whether it was in the process of formulating laws, rules or guidelines with respect to linking of Aadhaar details with social media accounts.
The court will decide on Facebook’s transfer petition only after the Centre’s response.
The response came on Facebook’s plea seeking transfer of various petitions on linking Aadhaar to individual profiles pending before different high courts to the Supreme Court.
Two writ petitions were filed in the Madras High Court in July last year, seeking interlinking of Aadhaar with social media accounts for identity authentication purposes.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, told a bench comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose that the government had no objection to transfer of the cases to the top court but the Madras High Court had already spent considerable time on the case.
The social media giant, in its plea, contended that there were four petitions, including two in the Madras
Hight Court C and one each in the Bombay and Jabalpur HCs, which contained similar prayers. The Supreme Court should hear all the petitions collectively to avoid conflicting judgments, it contended.
The Tamil Nadu government, in its counter affidavit, stated that the transfer plea was replete with false and misleading averments and was a blatant attempt to misguide the court for oblique motives. The affidavit cited a list of 34 criminal cases in which WhatsApp failed to disclose originator information including the Pollachi case.