Letter to Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation against mandating Aadhaar for COVID-19 testing

 

Recently, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation made Aadhaar mandatory for COVID-19 testing in Ahmedabad’s Urban Health Centres.

 

 

This decision by the Municipal Corporation of Ahmedabad is in violation of the judgment of the Supreme Court in Justice Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2019 (1) SCC 1) wherein it was held that Aadhaar is mandatory only for :

 

a) filing Income Tax returns; and

b) for availing government subsidies charged upon the Consolidated Fund of India.

 

This step will exclude people who do not have Aadhaar cards.

 

 

Any step taken by the Government(s) must be constitutionally tenable and in consonance with the law of the land. Through this letter, we have urged the Municipal Corporation to withdraw the mandatory requirement of Aadhaar for COVID-19 testing and instead use any of the government identification cards.

 

Read the letter below:

 

August 20th, 2020

 

To,
Mr. Mukesh Kumar
Municipal Commissioner
Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation

 

Via electronic mail

 

Respected Sir,

 

Subject: Request to withdraw mandatory Aadhaar requirement for COVID-19 testing in Ahmedabad’s Urban Health Centres.

 

It has come to our notice that the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has made Aadhaar mandatory for COVID-19 testing in Ahmedabad’s Urban Health Centres.

 

We write this to inform you that this step by the Corporation is in violation of the judgment of the Supreme Court in Justice Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2019 (1) SCC 1) wherein it was held that Aadhaar is mandatory only for filing IT returns and for availing government subsidies from the Con- solidated Fund of India. The Supreme Court also struck down S. 57 of the Aadhaar Act which permitted use of Aadhaar by the State or any body corporate or person, in pursuance to any contract. This step will also lead to exclusion of large number of persons without an Aadhaar card, and is thus, exclusionary in nature. Any steps taken by the Government must be constitutionally tenable and in consonance with the law laid down in the Puttaswamy (2019) case.

 

Through this letter, we urge you to withdraw this requirement of mandating Aadhaar for COVID-19 tests. We appeal to you to allow other means of government accepted verification documents as well.

 

Regards,

 

Sincerely,
Prasanth Sugathan
Legal Director
SFLC.IN
prasanth@sflc.in