A petition filed in the Supreme Court has sought directions to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to restrict the issuance of new Aadhaar cards to children up to six years of age and to frame stricter guidelines for issuing them to adolescents and adults, in order to prevent infiltrators from posing as Indian citizens.
The Public Interest Litigation (PIL), filed by lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay, has also urged the court to direct authorities to install display boards at common service centres clarifying that the 12-digit Aadhaar number is only a "proof of identity" and not proof of citizenship, address or date of birth.
Apart from all states and Union Territories, the plea has named UIDAI, the issuing authority for Aadhaar, along with the Union ministries of home, law and justice, and electronics and information technology as parties.
Filed through advocate Ashwani Dubey, the petition argued that Aadhaar, originally conceived as a proof of identity, has increasingly evolved into a "foundational document" that enables individuals to obtain other identification documents such as ration cards, domicile certificates and voter identity cards.
"The UIDAI has issued 144 crore Aadhaar cards, and 99 per cent Indians have been enrolled. Therefore, the petitioner is filing this writ petition as a PIL under Article 32, seeking a direction to UIDAI to issue new Aadhaar cards only to children and frame new stringent guidelines for adolescents and adults, so as to stop infiltrators from getting it and masquerading as Indian citizens," the plea said.
It said the need to file the plea arose when the petitioner came to know the manner in which infiltrators are able to procure Aadhaar cards through a verification process that is weak and can be easily manipulated.
"Foreigners apply for Aadhaar under the 'foreign' category. But infiltrators apply for Aadhaar under the 'Indian citizen' category and get it easily made. Thereafter, they obtain a ration card, birth and domicile certificate, driving licence, et cetera, essentially becoming indistinguishable from Indian citizens…," it said.
The plea also raised legal questions, including whether the Aadhaar Act 2016 has become "temporally unreasonable" for failing to keep up with the legislative intent of distinguishing foreigners from Indian citizens.
Invoking Articles 14, 19, and 21 of the Constitution, the petition said that the alleged misuse of Aadhaar undermines targeted welfare delivery and leads to diversion of public resources.
It also cited constitutional provisions related to electoral integrity and national security, claiming that illegal enrolments could distort democratic processes.
(WIth inputs from PTI)