Aadhaar: State cannot compel citizens to give personal info, says Senior advocate Shyam Divan

NEW DELHI: Continuing his argument in the Supreme Court on Aadhaar issue, Senior advocate Shyam Divan on Thursday emphasised that the state cannot compel a citizen to part with personal information. He added that a legal framework needs to be in place to challenge the Constitutional validity of the 12-digit biometric number.

The case is being heard by a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra.

Interrupting Divan, the bench said, “You want insurance policy, you go to a private company. You want mobile connection, you go to private entities and part with personal information. Here the government has multiplied the options, the moment the government asks you to give proof of address and other details, you have a problem and you say sorry.”

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Divan replied, “There is no problem per se with an individual parting with private information on his own. The point here is that you are being asked to part with information to someone you do not know and have no contractual relation with.”

He added that the private party was “so much outside the control of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) that they can use it for their own commercial purposes”.The argument would resume on January 23.