Aadhaar Security Case: UIDAI CEO Presents PPT in Supreme Court to Clear Concerns
The constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra asked the petitioners opposing the Aadhaar scheme to prepare a questionnaire after the UIDAI CEO’s presentation.
New Delhi, March 22: With the permission of the Supreme Court, Ajay Bhushan Pandey, CEO of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Thursday made a PowerPoint presentation on Aadhaar scheme. In his 80-minute address in the Apex Court, Pandey claimed that the biometric match software comes from best in the industry, stating that the data center consists of 6,000 servers, which according to him is more than enough for the country's needs.
The CEO claimed that in the past 1.5 years there has not been a single request from the government to check for biometric data in the Aadhaar system. He said when a person's biometrics don't match the Aadhaar database, an error code is sent to the UIDAI who will prompt the person to update their data. This means fraud transactions can't take place.
The UIDAI CEO claimed that biometric data cannot be leaked out both during capture or before transmission. Pandey claimed that all machines used by the enrollment agencies are STQC certified and that the software running on them is provided by the UIDAI. He said there are 2048 BIT encryption keys, so data is secure.
On Wednesday, the constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra asked the petitioners opposing the Aadhaar scheme to prepare a questionnaire after the UIDAI CEO’s presentation.
Earlier today, the Supreme Court had asked petitioners opposed to Aadhaar scheme to prepare questionnaire after UIDAI CEO’s PowerPoint presentation. On Wednesday, the bench had said there are several technical aspects related to the Aadhaar scheme. These include surveillance, data security and exclusion of certain people from receiving benefits for want of either authentication or the lack of an Aadhaar number.
As per reports by PTI, the Supreme Court was earlier told that the collection of biometric details of citizens by the UIDAI from 2010 onwards till 2016, when the enabling Aadhaar law came into force, was “illegal” and “invalid” and the collected data deserved to be destroyed.
Earlier this week, the Centre defended the introduction of Aadhaar and told the Supreme Court that it would help identify genuine beneficiaries of subsidies, services and benefits, and eliminate problems like fake PAN cards and plug leakages in the public distribution system.
Arguing on behalf of the Centre, Attorney General K K Venugopal told a five-judge constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, that Aadhaar would not only help identify the beneficiaries of various schemes, it would also ensure better delivery of benefits by bringing in transparency and eradicating corruption.
In a note placed before the bench, which also comprises Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, the government said percolation of benefits down to the needy has been delayed and slowed due to corruption.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 22, 2018 07:11 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).