The Kargilm Review Committee and a Group of Ministers recommended a multipurpose National Identity Card.
In March, 2006, the government announced National Common Minimum Programme for targeted government subsidies as there was problem of leakage.
The concept UIDAI was initially set up by the government of India in January 2009, as an attached office under the aegis of the planning commission via notification in the Gazette of India. According to the notification, the UIDAI was giver the responsibility to lay down plans and policies to implement the UIDAI scheme, to own and operate the UIDAI database, and to be responsible for its updating and maintenance on an ongoing basis. Adhaar was given a legislative sanction in 2016.
What is unique identification authority of India (UIDAI)?
The Unique Identification Authority of India is a statutory
authority established under the provisions of the Adhar which is related
to targeted delivery of financial and other subsidies, benefits and services.
Adhar act 2016. The UIDAI comes under the Ministry of Electronics and
Information technology (MeitY), Government of India.
Adhar is a 12- digital unique number that be obtained by
residents of India, based on their biometric and demographic data. The
main objective of Adhar card is to provide universal identity to every Indian
resident.
Resident’s meant to be?
1. Any Indian Civilian is eligible to apply the Adhar Card.
2. Kids who have attained an age of 3 years qualify to have an
Adhar
3. NRI and Foreigners Residing in India are also eligible to
take this Adhar.
Benefits of Adhar Card
There are various benefits of Adhar card especially to the
Economically Weaker Section (EWS) or citizens who are living in below poverty
line (BPL).
They can get targeted subsidies from government’s
ongoing schemes by linking their Adhar card.
In addition to this it helps in reducing the corruption
since every individual carries only one unique number.
The problem of leakage, that means when subsidies were
given to the poor, they did not reach to them. The middle man or the
distributor of those services took advantage of those services. Hence this
leakage of benefits would also stop due to Adhar.
Issue related to Adhar card
It is believed that the card will further be given more
importance as more and more government schemes are being launched requiring it
as a mandatory document for every Indian citizen.
Adhar is India’s biometric identification system, which is
the largest such project in the world. Though Adhar has become the focal point
of debate on right of privacy as threats to data security and citizen’s rights
to privacy may come under threat.
The constitution of India does not provide the data
protection laws in the changing environment of today where hacking and
different threats in form of viruses, ransom ware etc. are on the rise.
So mandating the Adhar directly tempers with the
Article 21 of the Indian constitution, i.e. right to liberty which stated that “no
person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to
procedure established by law”.
Since the constitution of India does not specially
guarantee ‘right to privacy’, the determine of privacy as a right completely
rests upon the interpretation of the judiciary and has been subject to
restrictions under various provisions and judgments of the supreme court
of India.
Cause of Data Leak: A rising threat
The information can easily be used by cybercriminals for
impersonation or identity theft as pointed by the various report. The main
problem of the issue in an unsecured API (application programming interface),
so data can be accessed easily.
Supreme Court's judgment
The Judgment Panel has struck down provisions in the act
that made its use mandatory in various applications for getting services. The
court has ruled that companies can not establish individual’s identity and this
is considered as unconstitutional.
Neither the Central government nor UIDAI have the source
code for the duplication technology, and the source code belong to a foreign
corporation. So basically security will be compromised, and UIDAI is a
licensee.
Sections 33(1), 33(2), 47, 57 have been struck down by the
Supreme Court.
Section 33(1) allows disclosure of information, if ordered
by a court above District.
Section 33(2) allowed identity and authentication data to
be disclosed in the interest of national security or on direction of an officer
not below the rank of joint secretary.
Under Section 47 no individual was allowed to file a
complaint if he/she felt that their data was leaked or misused.
So basically the law only allowed the court to take
cognizance of a complaint filed by UIDAI or anyone authorized by it.
Private companies like Paytm and Airtel Payment Banks also
demanded Adhar details from customers that are again unconstitutional as
mentioned by justice.
Conclusion
The intentions of
government behind applying Adhar are appreciated as it targets the deserving
beneficiary avoid leakage and helps in maintaining the exact report. However,
policies are judged by the outcome not by intentions. Data Security is also a
matter of concern in the constantly changing world. The data can easily be
compromised by private companies, so there should be strong arrangement to save
the data.
To work efficiently the government could not compromise
with fundamental rights of the citizens. There may be chances of sliding
towards authoritarian cultures if compromised with fundamental rights of
individuals.
The Judgment narrows the scope of Adhar only to plug
leakage in subsidy scheme and to have better targeting of welfare
benefits.
