On April 25, 2018 the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting released a bid document (“SMCH Bid Document”) stating its intent to establish a Social Media Communication Hub (“SMCH”) which would enable processes such as analyzing large volumes of data across diverse digital platforms in real time, comprehensive analytics along with monitoring and analyzing social media communications etc.

Aadhaar Free Income Tax Return Filing; Courtesy Delhi High Court

As July 31, 2018, the deadline to file Income Tax returns for the Assessment Year 2018 – 2019, comes closer, the complexities and jargon behind whether or not Aadhaar Registration/ Enrollment ID (Aadhaar Number) has to be furnished/ linked become more and more relevant by the minute. Thankfully for us, the Delhi High Court has come to save the day.

The minutes of the first and second meetings of the Committee of Experts on data protection framework held on September 11, 2017 and October 3, 2017 respectively were disclosed in February 2018 in response to an RTI request made by a private citizen.

Healthcare, Education, Smart Cities and Transportation Identified as Key Sectors

On Thursday, May 10, a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court of India finished hearing arguments from the batch of 29 petitions (led by K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India) that had challenged the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar scheme on various grounds.

On the last day (day 38) of the final Aadhaar hearing, Senior Advocate, Gopal Subramanium resumed his submissions for the State. He started by asking the bench, “Is Aadhaar really affirmative action? Is the Act an enabler or is it in the guise of enabler? The Act is not an instrumentality to deliver services. It is only a means of identification.” He contended that the bench has to read the true purpose of the law and whether the impugned law seeks to achieve that purpose Mr. Subramanium was of the view that dignity and autonomy is not preserved by Section 7 of the Act.

On day 37 of the final Aadhaar hearing, Senior Advocate Shyam Divan resumed his submissions for the petitioners by stating that banks and telecom operators were linking individuals’ Aadhaar with their bank accounts and mobile numbers without their permission. This is called inorganic seeding. He asserted that UIDAI collected biometrics of a hundred crore people which is the entire population of Europe and North America without any statutory backing.

On day 36 of the final Aadhaar hearing, Attorney General K.K Venugopal resumed his submissions and stated that Article 110(1)(g) is a standalone provision and there can be a money bill that does not relate to Article 110(1)(a)-(f) of the Constitution but is still covered independently under Article 110(1)(g). Therefore, the Aadhaar bill did not have to be passed by the Rajya Sabha. Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra interjected and said that Section 57 is an enabling provision that allows state legislatures to introduce Aadhaar for various services.