Notice to UIDAI for issuing cards without due procedure
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has been issued a legal notice for issuing Aadhaar cards even before the National Identification Authority of India (NIAI) Bill has even been tabled in Parliament.
The notice was issued by Mathew Thomas of Citizens Action Forum to Chairperson of UIDAI and Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission.
The notice says that Aadhaar cards were being issued under sub section (2) of Section 3 of the Bill. However, he states the Bill has not been tabled in Parliament.
Hence, the collection of biometric and personal data and issual of cards were illegal and did not enjoy statutory sanction. None of the actions like spending thousands of crores of rupees for this activity, purchasing equipment and paying money to contractors can be done before the approval of the Bill, he says.
Criteria
The notice also questions the criteria for selecting different companies as registrars for enrolling residents for Aadhaar numbers.
Further it states: “The government of Karnataka is collecting the data in detail from each of the residents in the name of Know Your Kumar (KYR). Thus, all the data relating to a person who is receiving services like pensions PDS, BPL and other benefits have to give all details in the KYR form. It is amply clear that any citizen or resident seeking any service of the State has to prove his identity before being delivered the said service. It will deny them the service if the biometric details do not match due to technical errors and abuse of manipulation of their identity.”
Mathews’ counsel, B T Venkatesh, said they expected a reply within 10 days, failing which they would be filing suits. More notices were expected to be sent in the next couple of days.
