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India's Top Court Refuses To Scrap Aadhaar, the World's Largest Biometric ID Database (huffingtonpost.in)
India's top court refused to scrap Aadhaar, the world's largest biometric database, in a ruling announced Wednesday, upholding the validity of the sprawling digital-identity program but also imposing some restrictions on its use and proliferation. Huffington Post reports: The majority judgement of the court read down Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act of 2016, holding that private companies cannot insist on Aadhaar numbers from citizens to provide services. The court upheld the validity of linking aadhaar to PAN cards, suggesting that -- should the government wish it -- anyone who pays income tax will have to an aadhaar number anyway. However, the court held the linking of aadhaar numbers to bank accounts, as mandated by an amendment to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act of 2002, was unconstitutional. The court also held that educational institutions and bodies like the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) and University Grants Commission (UGC), and schools and colleges, cannot ask for Aadhaar details of potential candidates.
Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, and Justices AK Sikri and AM Khanwilkar delivered a concurrent majority judgement, while Justices DY Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan delivered separate opinions. The majority judgement, read out in a packed courthouse by Justice Sikri, relied heavily on the court's landmark 2017 Privacy judgement. "Today the Supreme Court has passed a historic judgement on Aadhaar," said Supreme Court Advocate Prashant Bhushan. "They have held several parts of the Aadhaar act to be unconstitutional." The court's decision restricting private companies from demanding Aadhaar numbers, Bhushan said, would come as a relief. The ruling could come as a blow for local companies -- like Jio and Paytm -- that rely heavily (or even exclusively) on technologies such as Aadhaar's eKYC (an Aadhaar-enabled Know Your Customer service) to grow their customer base, analysts say.
Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, and Justices AK Sikri and AM Khanwilkar delivered a concurrent majority judgement, while Justices DY Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan delivered separate opinions. The majority judgement, read out in a packed courthouse by Justice Sikri, relied heavily on the court's landmark 2017 Privacy judgement. "Today the Supreme Court has passed a historic judgement on Aadhaar," said Supreme Court Advocate Prashant Bhushan. "They have held several parts of the Aadhaar act to be unconstitutional." The court's decision restricting private companies from demanding Aadhaar numbers, Bhushan said, would come as a relief. The ruling could come as a blow for local companies -- like Jio and Paytm -- that rely heavily (or even exclusively) on technologies such as Aadhaar's eKYC (an Aadhaar-enabled Know Your Customer service) to grow their customer base, analysts say.
I don't know about India but in the West, a laptop with a the data they need will mysteriouly go missing. Elections should be held forcivil servants.
Just look at America: Tyrannical ""resistance""minions are sabotaging the policies voted on by the democratic will of the people.
Naturally they will never give up this power, having established it. Above all, they wish to control. This control is intoxicating to the kinds of people who are attracted to government service. At last, they will have a clear picture of what we do with our lives, and they can not just influence, but control us. Biometric IDs, we can't walk in public without being identified. Cashless society, we can't pay in cash without being taxed. The level of control made possible by Big Tech is a wonderful discovery to not just the Indian government, but governments worldwide. That whole "for the people" crap is going to be discarded in favor of "we're doing this for your own good and you'll like it", coming soon in the next decade or two at the most.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Without it, people would be able to shit in the street with absolute impunity.
I wonder if the judges will be around to admit it, once it becomes painfully clear enough.
Can we call it by its name now? CORRUPTION.
Indian government is making serious efforts to reduce tax evasion, and personal fraud by making cash transactions difficult. Suddenly announces denomination of large currency notes, and only people who can prove they really earned the money legally get new notes, and all the old black money notes become useless.
But there is so much corruption nothing really changes.
This ruling allows the government to collect the data. But prevents it from using it to reduce fraud.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I'm from India and I actually think in the current Indian context aadhaar is actually a good idea.. Aadhaar uses biometrics to make sure that one person is unable to obtain a second Aadhaar ID even if they apply for one with different set of ID's.. It is very common for people here to have multiple ID's to file tax, obtain social benefits, open multiple bank account with different names etc.. Aadhaar puts an end to all this.. As it is the social welfare schemes have already plugged massive pilferage running into billions of rupees by using Aadhaar... India is not at a stage where the privacy and other related higher luxury concerns do not apply to us at this point in time...
Except that apparently it doesn't work. In fact there already is a black market for secondary aadhaar cards, and no problem getting them.
So the whole trick of starting with identity, which is the root of many of the privacy problems, is more impracticable now than it was a couple centuries back (and you couldn't do it then, either, while governments elsewhere could and did) and the technology exists to do much the same things you want aadhaar to do without first starting with an infallible identitiy. The latter approach also preserves privacy so your grandchildren's grandchildren don't have to battle for it later.
But you have to have a little imagination next to the opportunity. The stereotypical techfappery called aadhaar got done instread, and obviously rotted the brain of these judges already. Oh well. Shithole countries gonna shit in a hole for a while longer, then.
the problem with westerns like you is that you have no idea or do not understand the real issues developing countries like India face..
you see India from a western lens that does not help or apply to solve Indian problems...
your secondary Aadhaar card is almost useless because you cannot authenticate it with your fingerprint when availing welfare schemes etc..
Why does the US not get rid of SSN numbers? it is silly to expect a developing country not to have a system for similar use..
America already does this at the border. How is that different? Is it because it is not happening to everyone and no ID is given or mentioned about it openly
The government already has that data bunk.
Aadhaar's eKYC (an Aadhaar-enabled Know Your Customer service) to grow their customer base, analysts say.
FTFY
Aadhaar's eKYC (an Aadhaar-enabled Spy On Your Customer service) to grow their customer base, analysts say.
GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
Except that apparently it doesn't work. In fact there already is a black market for secondary aadhaar cards, and no problem getting them.
You seem to know how to do it, so where can I get a secondary "identity" aadhaar card? One thats linked to my biometric-identity. I.e. two identities linked to the same finger print(s) and iris scan... ... dumbass
You're referring to that account that was created when you were just a wee wet spot on the backseat of your daddy's Lada, golubushka?
It's not hard. You seem confused about what a duplicate card means and how this all works. You can have have 20 cards; 200. If you have someone inside the system you can have as many as you like. There's been tens of thousands of prosecutions; no one know how many have not been caught.