The petition challenges the constitutional validity of the Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry (APAAR) scheme, arguing that it creates a centralised, Aadhaar-linked, lifelong digital identity for students without any legislative backing or adequate safeguards. It contends that APAAR is not merely an administrative record-keeping mechanism but a “cradle-to-career” identification architecture that enables continuous aggregation, retention and profiling of children’s educational and personal data, raising serious concerns relating to privacy, surveillance, informational self-determination and function creep. The petition submits that such a far-reaching digital identity framework fails the constitutional tests of legality, necessity and proportionality laid down by the Supreme Court in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India.
The petition further challenges the coercive implementation of APAAR through executive circulars and institutional practices that effectively make enrolment mandatory despite repeated government claims that the scheme is voluntary. It argues that requiring Aadhaar-linked APAAR IDs for educational services, including CBSE board examination registration, violates Articles 14, 21 and 21A of the Constitution, as well as the Supreme Court’s Aadhaar judgments, which held that children cannot be denied educational access for want of Aadhaar. The petition therefore seeks to declare the APAAR scheme unconstitutional in its present form, restrain the authorities from making enrolment compulsory, and ensure that no student faces adverse consequences for choosing not to enrol under the scheme.
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