Aadhaar Verdict to be Pronounced by Supreme Court Tomorrow
The apex court has been hearing a batch of petition since last year which has challenged the mandatory usage of Aadhaar, calling it violative of the right to privacy.
New Delhi, Sept 25: The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce the verdict in Aadhaar case tomorrow. The bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra is scheduled to issue the final order on whether the biometric identity card could be made mandatory for identification.
The apex court has been hearing a batch of petition since last year which has challenged the mandatory usage of Aadhaar, calling it violative of the right to privacy. The proceedings in the case were deferred when the CJI ordered the constitution of a separate constitution bench to decide whether the right to privacy is a fundamental right. Aadhaar Case: Verdict Reserved by Supreme Court After '2nd Longest Hearing' in Judicial History
In August last year, the Supreme Court ruled tha privacy is intrinsic to democracy and would be therefore be considered as a fundamental right. The judgement formed the basis of the judiciary's recent verdict which decriminalised gay sex of Section 377.
The ruling on Aadhaar is part of the 4 key verdicts which the CJI Misra-ed bench will be pronounce before his retirement. The first of these verdicts came on Tuesday, when the apex court decided not to bar undertrials from contesting elections.
The other 3 cases include the ban on women entering the Sabarimala temple in Kerala, the arrest of activists in connection of Bhima-Koregaon riots and the sensitive verdict on Ayodhya.
Notably, the litigations challenging the Aadhaar led to the "second-longest set of proceedings" in the apex court's history. The petitioners had approached the top judiciary in early 2017, after the Centre amended the Aadhaar Act with the intent to make the unique identification number mandatory for availing public services and subsidies.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 25, 2018 04:45 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).