Aadhaar gets thumbs up from Supreme Court

Why in news?

The Supreme Court, in a majority opinion, upheld Aadhaar as a reasonable restriction on individual privacy that fulfils the government’s legitimate aim to provide dignity to a large, marginalised population living in abject poverty.

What supreme court said?

• The Constitution does not exist for a few or minority of the people of India, but ‘We the People’.
• Aadhaar is a document of empowerment. An unparalleled identity proof. A document that cannot be duplicated, unlike PAN, ration card, and passport.
• It is better to be unique than the best. The best makes you number one, but unique makes you the only one.
• Technology had become a vital tool for ensuring good governance in a social welfare state. Schemes such as the PDS, scholarships, mid-day meals and LPG subsidies involve a huge amount of money, and fool proof Aadhaar helped welfare reach the poor.
• The Supreme Court quashed or read down several provisions in the Aadhaar Act in order to de-fang any possibility of the state misusing data.
• For one, the court held that authentication records should not be retained for more than six months. It declared the archiving of records for five years as bad in law.
• It also prohibited the creation of a metabase for transactions.
• It read down Section 33 (1), which allowed the disclosure of Aadhaar information on the orders of a District Judge. This cannot be done now without giving the person concerned an opportunity to be heard.
• The Supreme Court struck down Section 33(2), which allowed the disclosure of Aadhaar information for national security reasons on the orders of an officer not below a Joint Secretary.

How aadhaar does not violate right to privacy?

• The Supreme Court said neither were individuals profiled nor their movements traced when Aadhaar was used to avail government benefits under Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act, 2016.
• The statute only sought minimal biometric information, and this did not amount to invasion of privacy.
• Countering the argument that the Aadhaar regime would facilitate the birth of a surveillance state, Justice Sikri wrote that Aadhaar exhibited no such tendencies.
• Authentication transactions through Aadhaar did not ask for the purpose, nature or location of the transaction.
• Besides, information was collected in silos and their merging was prohibited. The authentication process was not expanded to the Internet.
• The collection of personal data and its authentication was done through registered devices. The Authority did not get any information related to the IP address or the GPS location from where authentication was performed.
• The Aadhaar structure makes it very difficult to create the profile of a person, Justice Sikri reasoned.
• The absence of a legislative framework for the Aadhaar project between 2009 and 2016, before the Aadhaar Act came into existence, left the biometric data of millions of Indian citizens exposed to danger.
• Justice Chandrachud did not agree with Justice Sikri’s majority view that since information was collected in silos in Aadhaar, potential surveillance or profiling by the state or private entities was impossible.
• He countered that when Aadhaar was seeded into every database, it became a bridge across discreet data silos, which allowed anyone with access to this information to re-construct a profile of an individual’s life.

SC upheld the passage of the Aadhaar Act as a Money Bill.

• The majority opinion on the Constitution Bench that the Aadhaar Act was a Money Bill prevailed.
• Justice A.K. Sikri pointed to Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act which required authentication by Aadhaar card if beneficiaries wanted to access subsidies, benefits and services.
• Justice Sikri reasoned that since all these were welfare measures sought to be extended to the marginalised sections, a collective reading would show that the purpose is to expand the coverage of all kinds of aid, support, grant, advantage, relief provisions, facility, utility or assistance which may be extended with the support of the Consolidated Fund of India with the objective of targeted delivery.
• In short, the majority view justified that Aadhaar was vital to ensure that government aid reached the targeted beneficiaries, and hence, the Act was validly passed as a Money Bill.

Aadhar linkages

• The majority opinion upheld the PAN-Aadhaar linkage, but declared linking Aadhaar with bank accounts and mobile SIM cards unconstitutional.
• The Election Commission may resume the voluntary linking of voter identification cards with the Aadhaar database, given that, prima facie, the judgment by the Supreme Court’s five-judge Bench does not have any adverse remarks on the issue.

Children

• The court insulated children from the Aadhaar regime.
• The card was not necessary for children aged between six and 14 under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan as right to education was a fundamental right.
• Statutory bodies such as the CBSE and the UGC cannot ask students to produce their Aadhaar cards for examinations like the NEET and the JEE.
• Permission of parents and guardians was a must before enrolling children into Aadhaar.
• Once they attained the age of majority, children could opt out of Aadhaar.

Section 57

The Supreme Court held the portion, which gives a free hand to private entities to demand Aadhaar from individuals, unconstitutional.

Directions to the Government

The court further directed the government and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to bring in regulations to prevent rightfully entitled people from being denied benefits.

Concerns

• Lakhs of people would continue to be denied their universal rights for not having Aadhaar.
• The majority opinion in the Aadhaar verdict is silent on deleting biometric data already collected by phone companies.
• The judgment would help little in protecting the right to privacy because the Centre had privatised or outsourced many of its responsibilities. Such companies would have access to Aadhaar data.
• The Supreme Court ruling that Aadhaar is not mandatory for opening bank accounts could affect online opening of accounts.
• The bankers say that since there are no other officially valid documents apart from Aadhaar for use digitally, accounts cannot be opened online if the customer decides not to share the number.

What is a Money Bill?

Article 110 of the Constitution deals with the definition of money bills. It states that a bill is deemed to be a money bill if it contains ‘only’ provisions dealing with all or any of the following matters:

• The imposition, abolition, remission, alteration or regulation of any tax;
• The regulation of the borrowing of money by the Union government;
• The custody of the Consolidated Fund of India or the contingency fund of India, the payment of moneys into or the withdrawal of money from any such fund;
• The appropriation of money out of the Consolidated Fund of India;
• Declaration of any expenditure charged on the Consolidated Fund of India or increasing the amount of any such expenditure;
• The receipt of money on account of the Consolidated Fund of India or the public account of India or the custody or issue of such money, or the audit of the accounts of the Union or of a state; or
• Any matter incidental to any of the matters specified above.

Boost to SC/ST quota in promotions

Why in news?

A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court has modified a 2006 judgment requiring the State to show quantifiable data to prove the backwardness of a Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe community in order to provide quota in promotion in public employment.

Supreme court judgement

• It gives a huge fillip for the government’s efforts to provide accelerated promotion with consequential seniority for Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) members in government services.
• The apex court also turned down the centre’s plea that overall population of SC/ST be considered for granting quota for them.
• Sc held that this portion of the M. Nagaraj judgment of another five-judge Constitution Bench in 2006 was directly contrary to the nine-judge Bench verdict in the Indira Sawhney case.
• In the Indira Sawhney case, the Supreme Court had held that the test or requirement of social and educational backwardness cannot be applied to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, who indubitably fall within the expression ‘backward class of citizens’.
• Presidential List for Scheduled Castes contains only those castes or groups or parts as untouchables.
• Similarly, the Presidential List of Scheduled Tribes only refers to those tribes in remote backward areas who are socially extremely backward.
• The whole object of reservation is to see that backward classes of citizens move forward so that they may march hand in hand with other citizens of India on an equal basis.
• This will not be possible if only the creamy layer within that class bag all the coveted jobs in the public sector and perpetuate themselves, leaving the rest of the class as backward as they always were, Justice Nariman said and upheld Nagaraj’s direction that creamy layer applied to SC/ST in promotions.
• It said that when a court applies the creamy layer principle to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, it does not in any manner tinker with the Presidential List under Articles 341 or 342 of the Constitution of India.
• The caste or group or sub-group named in the said List continues exactly as before.
• It is only those persons within that group or sub-group, who have come out of untouchability or backwardness by virtue of belonging to the creamy layer, who are excluded from the benefit of reservation.

SC proceedings can be live-streamed

Why in news?

The Supreme Court upheld the plea for live-streaming of its proceedings, observing that the use of technology is to virtually expand the court beyond the four walls of the courtroom.

Judgement

• It pointed out that in some cases the parties may have genuine reservations and may claim right of privacy and dignity.
• Such a claim will have to be examined by the court and for which reason, a just regulatory framework must be provided for, including obtaining prior consent of the parties to the proceedings to be live-streamed.
• The final decision whether to live-stream a case or not lies with the court, especially in sensitive ones. The decision cannot be appealed.

New telecom policy

Why in news?

The Union Cabinet has approved the new telecom policy that aims to provide broadband access to every citizen at 50 Mbps speed by the year 2022.

About National Digital Communications Policy 2018

• The National Digital Communications Policy 2018, which envisions attracting $100 billion investments into the country’s digital communications sector, aims at creating at least 40 lakh new jobs in the sector in the next four years.
• The policy aims at expanding the IoT ecosystem to five billion connected devices, create globally recognised IPRs in India and create a fund for R&D in new technologies.
• It also pitches for leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Big Data to enhance the quality of services offered, spectrum management and network security while also establishing India as a global hub for cloud computing.
• The policy has called for a review of levies and fees — including licence fee, universal service obligation fund levy and spectrum usage charges, on the sector. This is expected to help the debt-laden telecom sector.
• It Provide universal broadband connectivity at 50 Mbps to every citizen.
• It Provide 1 Gbps connectivity to all Gram Panchayats by 2020 and 10 Gbps by 2022 and Ensure connectivity to all uncovered areas.
• Attract investments of USD 100 billion in the Digital Communications Sector.
• Train one million manpower for building New Age Skill.
• Expand IoT ecosystem to 5 billion connected devices.
• Establish a comprehensive data protection regime for digital communications that safeguards the privacy, autonomy and choice of individuals.
• Facilitate India’s effective participation in the global digital economy.
• Enforce accountability through appropriate institutional mechanisms to assure citizens of safe and secure digital communications infrastructure and services.

Modi gets UN environmental honour: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been awarded with the UN’s highest environmental honour, also given to five other individuals and organisations, for his leadership of the International Solar Alliance and pledge to eliminate single use plastic by 2022. Cochin International Airport was honoured with the award for Entrepreneurial Vision, for its leadership in the use of sustainable energy.

Chardham project

Why in news?

Following a plea challenging the environmental clearance granted to the Chardham highway project, the National Green Tribunal constituted an oversight committee to look into the issue.

About committee

• The independent committee will consist of representatives from the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), the Forest Research Institute and others.
• The directions came while the green panel was hearing a set of pleas challenging the construction of the Chardham highway project, stating that the project will have adverse environmental effects.

About Chardham highway project

• It is a proposed two-lane (in each direction) express National Highway with a minimum width of 10 metres in the state of Uttarakhand.
• The proposed highway will complement the under development Char Dham Railway by connecting the four holy places in Uttarakhand states includes Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.
• The project includes 900 km national highways will connect whole of Uttarakhand state.

MHA merges police forces in six Union Territories

Why in news?

The National Capital Territory of Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Chandigarh (Police Service) Rules, 2018, was notified on September 25. The new rules have amalgamated police forces in six Union Territories.

Details

• The rules effectively mean that officers, who are not direct IPS recruits, could be posted in any of the six UTs and will be at the disposal of the MHA.
• There are around 533 posts that will be covered under the new rules including Assistant Commissioners of Police and Deputy Superintendents of Police.
• The rules will come into play upon promotion or direct recruitment of inspectors to the post of ACPs.
• Half of the posts at ACP rank will be filled through direct recruitment and the other half through promotion.
• Earlier these postings were decided by the respective UT administrators.
• Moreover, a Service known as the National Capital Territory of Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Chandigarh Police Service will be constituted.

Benefits

• The initiative is being viewed as the first step towards the creation of a central police cadre allowing for the posting of police personnel across the country irrespective of the force they are initially inducted into.
• A central pool allowing inter-transferability would also ensure that local police personnel do not fall prey to serving vested interests in their home services and ensure that they don’t become complacent.
• It will ensure that local police personnel in smaller locations such as Daman & Diu or Lakshadweep or Dadra and Nagar Haveli are able to learn modern policing methods from the capital of the country and go back home to employ these effectively.

Astra

• Astra is an all-weather beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, India.
• It is the first air-to-air missile developed by India.
• It features mid-course inertial guidance system driven by a fibre optic gyroscope with terminal active radar homing.
• Astra is designed to be capable of engaging targets at varying range and altitudes allowing for engagement of both short-range targets at a distance of 20 km (12 mi) and long-range targets up to a distance of 80 km (50 mi).
• Astra has been integrated with Indian Air Force’s Sukhoi Su-30MKI and will be integrated with Dassault Mirage 2000 and Mikoyan MiG-29 in the future.