New Delhi, April 17: While hearing the clutch of 27 petitions on Tuesday challenging the legal validity of Aadhaar, the Supreme Court posed a stern question before the UIDAI: 'What if the Aadhaar data is used to influence the election outcome?'

The apex court said a potential data leak of 1.3 billion Indians "can influence the electoral process of the country". The bench's apprehension comes days after a political row erupted over the alleged role of British data mining firm Cambridge Analytica in various Indian elections over the past decade.

"Can democracy survive if Aadhaar data is used to influence the electoral outcome," said Justice DY Chandrachud, who was part of the five-judge SC bench which is hearing the arguments against Aadhaar.

The controversy involving third-party interference in electoral processes in several countries around the globe was unearthed after a former Cambridge Analytica employee claimed the firm has illegitimately obtained personal information of nearly 87 million Facebook users.

On its website, the data consultancy group boasts about handling the election campaign of US president Donald Trump. It's subsidiary firm in India, headed by senior JD(U) leader KC Tyagi's son Amrish Tyagi, is charged of working for the Congress and the BJP, apart from the JD(U).

The UIDAI, meanwhile, attempted to allay the fears, saying the data cannot be leaked to any third-party firm as it gets encrypted into the system. "The system is full-proof and cannot be breached by anyone," said senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, who represented the nodal Aadhaar agency.

Alleging a conspiracy against the government by the Aadhaar retractors, Dwivedi said the petitioners have argued smart card is better than Aadhaar. Such an argument, he said, shows "they want global institutions like Google to succeed but not Aadhaar".

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 17, 2018 06:10 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).