SC notice to the Centre, Assam and others on PIL for Aadhaar to 21 lakh people included in NRC

The Supreme Court on Monday sought a response from the Centre, Registrar General of India, and UIDAI on a plea for issuance of Aadhaar cards to 21 lakh persons, who were although included in the final NRC supplementary list in August 2019 but their biometric data have been put on hold due to pending objections.

A bench presided over by Justice U U Lalit issued notice to the Union and the Assam governments and others on the PIL filed by Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev.

The petitioner claimed there existed no law which barred the grant of Aadhaar number to persons whose names appear in the final National Register for Citizens list.

"It is submitted that not being able to obtain an Aadhaar Number puts nearly 20 lakh people in jeopardy as they would not be able to access the state sanctioned schemes, subsidies and benefits as the same requires mandatory registration under the Aadhaar regime," the plea said.

The plea, filed through advocate Tulika Mukherjee, said subsequent to the publication of the draft list on December 31, 2017, nearly 21 lakh people whose names were admitted into the NRC final supplementary list on August 31, 2019, are not being provided their Aadhaar number due to the fact that the NRC biometric data has been put on hold citing the statement of purpose and modalities for disposal of claims and objections prepared by the Union government and approved by the top court though an order on November 1, 2018.

It also said non grant of Aadhaar numbers violated the rights of the persons to the right of dignity of life as enshrined under Article 21, read with Article 19 of the Constitution. It also created major disadvantage in obtaining education access, application for jobs, PAN cards, ration card, opening of bank accounts etc and therefore impinging the ability of such people to have rights to livelihood, food, and liberty.

"The only criteria laid down under the Aadhaar Act is that the person should have been a resident of the country for a period of 182 days or more in the preceding 12 months prior to filing an application. Further, as the Aadhaar number is not a proof of citizenship, its grant would have no bearing on the effect of the object and purpose of the Citizenship Act and has any bearing on persons whose names appear on the NRC or not," the plea said.

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