The Supreme Court’s interim order on Aadhaar doesn’t bring greater clarity to the main issues over the unique identity number that the government and UIDAI want to impose on every Indian. There’s only temporary relief in the deadline extended to March 31, 2018 to link Aadhaar with various services, including mobile connections, that will be another gigantic exercise given the number of SIM cards in use. The crux will, however, have to await the final verdict of the Constitution Bench, which will begin hearings from January 17 on whether Aadhaar is an infringement of privacy. Given the import of all data of an individual being linked to create a complete profile of his/her habits, and perhaps even sexual inclinations, unravelling the larger question is critical to a free and democratic society.
Unless the Supreme Court decides otherwise, it’s quite clear that the government, which is said to have issued mandates to link Aadhaar with about 139 fields, will have its way of mapping every cardholder’s imprint. While catching duplication in social welfare entitlements and stemming pilfering from the public distribution system may be necessary to check leakage of public funds, should the data of what someone does with his/her money be available to government departments, many of whom have proved imbecilic in allowing data leaks? A nine-judge bench has already ruled that “privacy is a fundamental right, subject to reasonable restrictions”. While UIDAI promises five-level security and sharing of data only on a need-to-know basis, the ground realities of bureaucratic incompetence in handling metadata give a different picture. Wrangling over an identity card has now become a unique Indian data apprehension industry.
