In 2009, I became extremely concerned with the concept of Unique Identity for various reasons. Connected with many like minded highly educated people who were all concerned.
On 18th May 2010, I started this Blog to capture anything and everything I came across on the topic. This blog with its million hits is a testament to my concerns about loss of privacy and fear of the ID being misused and possible Criminal activities it could lead to.
In 2017 the Supreme Court of India gave its verdict after one of the longest hearings on any issue. I did my bit and appealed to the Supreme Court Judges too through an On Line Petition.
In 2019 the Aadhaar Legislation has been revised and passed by the two houses of the Parliament of India making it Legal. I am no Legal Eagle so my Opinion carries no weight except with people opposed to the very concept.
In 2019, this Blog now just captures on a Daily Basis list of Articles Published on anything to do with Aadhaar as obtained from Daily Google Searches and nothing more. Cannot burn the midnight candle any longer.
"In Matters of Conscience, the Law of Majority has no place"- Mahatma Gandhi
Ram Krishnaswamy
Sydney, Australia.

Aadhaar

The UIDAI has taken two successive governments in India and the entire world for a ride. It identifies nothing. It is not unique. The entire UID data has never been verified and audited. The UID cannot be used for governance, financial databases or anything. It’s use is the biggest threat to national security since independence. – Anupam Saraph 2018

When I opposed Aadhaar in 2010 , I was called a BJP stooge. In 2016 I am still opposing Aadhaar for the same reasons and I am told I am a Congress die hard. No one wants to see why I oppose Aadhaar as it is too difficult. Plus Aadhaar is FREE so why not get one ? Ram Krishnaswamy

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.-Mahatma Gandhi

In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.Mahatma Gandhi

“The invasion of privacy is of no consequence because privacy is not a fundamental right and has no meaning under Article 21. The right to privacy is not a guaranteed under the constitution, because privacy is not a fundamental right.” Article 21 of the Indian constitution refers to the right to life and liberty -Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi

“There is merit in the complaints. You are unwittingly allowing snooping, harassment and commercial exploitation. The information about an individual obtained by the UIDAI while issuing an Aadhaar card shall not be used for any other purpose, save as above, except as may be directed by a court for the purpose of criminal investigation.”-A three judge bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar said in an interim order.

Legal scholar Usha Ramanathan describes UID as an inverse of sunshine laws like the Right to Information. While the RTI makes the state transparent to the citizen, the UID does the inverse: it makes the citizen transparent to the state, she says.

Good idea gone bad
I have written earlier that UID/Aadhaar was a poorly designed, unreliable and expensive solution to the really good idea of providing national identification for over a billion Indians. My petition contends that UID in its current form violates the right to privacy of a citizen, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. This is because sensitive biometric and demographic information of citizens are with enrolment agencies, registrars and sub-registrars who have no legal liability for any misuse of this data. This petition has opened up the larger discussion on privacy rights for Indians. The current Article 21 interpretation by the Supreme Court was done decades ago, before the advent of internet and today’s technology and all the new privacy challenges that have arisen as a consequence.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP Rajya Sabha

“What is Aadhaar? There is enormous confusion. That Aadhaar will identify people who are entitled for subsidy. No. Aadhaar doesn’t determine who is eligible and who isn’t,” Jairam Ramesh

But Aadhaar has been mythologised during the previous government by its creators into some technology super force that will transform governance in a miraculous manner. I even read an article recently that compared Aadhaar to some revolution and quoted a 1930s historian, Will Durant.Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Rajya Sabha MP

“I know you will say that it is not mandatory. But, it is compulsorily mandatorily voluntary,” Jairam Ramesh, Rajya Saba April 2017.

August 24, 2017: The nine-judge Constitution Bench rules that right to privacy is “intrinsic to life and liberty”and is inherently protected under the various fundamental freedoms enshrined under Part III of the Indian Constitution

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the World; indeed it's the only thing that ever has"

“Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” -Edward Snowden

In the Supreme Court, Meenakshi Arora, one of the senior counsel in the case, compared it to living under a general, perpetual, nation-wide criminal warrant.

Had never thought of it that way, but living in the Aadhaar universe is like living in a prison. All of us are treated like criminals with barely any rights or recourse and gatekeepers have absolute power on you and your life.

Announcing the launch of the # BreakAadhaarChainscampaign, culminating with events in multiple cities on 12th Jan. This is the last opportunity to make your voice heard before the Supreme Court hearings start on 17th Jan 2018. In collaboration with @no2uidand@rozi_roti.

UIDAI's security seems to be founded on four time tested pillars of security idiocy

1) Denial

2) Issue fiats and point finger

3) Shoot messenger

4) Bury head in sand.

God Save India

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

13255 - Aadhaar Articles Dated 11th April 2018



EPS pensioners can submit life certificate without Aadhaar, fingerprint authentication: EPFO

Economic Times

Now Employee Pension Scheme (EPS) pensioners can submit life certificate without Aadhaar or even if Aadhaar fingerprint authentication fails in case of those who do possess Aadhaar. These pensioners had been facing problems in submitting Jeevan Pramaan or life certificate digitally and ...


Aadhaar Final Hearing [Day 26]: Aadhaar-PAN Linking Will Check Duplication, Will Make Citizens ... - Live Law

Biometrics cannot be invasive even if Aadhaar held valid: SC - Times of India

Aadhaar-PAN link doesn't vitiate privacy: UIDAI - The Hindu


The Hindu
The Haryana government has circulated a 'Student Admission Form' to schools across the State seeking the Aadhaar number of the students, the parents and their religion and caste as well as other such information. The move has evoked sharp criticism from Opposition Congress with its ...





Economic Times
“Section 59 is badly drafted,” observed Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, who is heading a bench of five judges hearing a batch of petitions challenging the legality of Aadhaar. “It is very difficult for us to recognise that fundamental rights can be compromised or waived,” he said, referring to the deemed ...





Hindustan Times
The Supreme Court today rebutted the Centre's defence that collection of biometric details has not infringed the right to privacy of the citizens even if these were collected before the enactment of a law on Aadhaar in 2016. While the government referred to verdicts in two earlier cases relating to privacy ...




Times of India
It was also suggested that Aadhaar card should be linked to voter ID to check fake voting. Congress leaders also asked the CEC to implement the VVPAT system in such a way that rural voters can check and verify their mandate. "We have said that in rural areas, the VVPAT slip should be handed over to ...



MediaNama.com
Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) provides Aadhaar Authentication Services to the entities appointed as per Regulation 12 of Aadhaar (Authentication) Regulations, 2016. Only those entities, that fulfill the eligibility criteria laid down in Schedule-A of Aadhaar (Authentication) Regulations, ...






Newslaundry
On January 3, the Chandigarh-based The Tribune's Rachna Khaira had done an investigative story stating that details of more than 1 billion Aadhaar numbers could be accessed in 10 minutes for Rs 500. Following this, a UIDAI deputy director had filed a first information report against Khaira.



Firstpost
On Day 26 of Aadhaar hearings, Attorney General KK Venugopal concluded his arguments for the State, arguing that the privacy invasion via Aadhaar is minimal and is within the reasonable expectation of privacy requirement. Next, Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta commenced his arguments ...






India Legal
The Supreme Court Constitution Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AK Sikri, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, hearing Aadhaar and related linkages issue (petitions saying that it was unconstitutional), was told by Attorney general K K Venugopal on Tuesday (April 10) ...






Economic Times
Last year, the government introduced section 139AA of the Income Tax Act, which made it mandatory for applicants applying for new PAN card to quote their Aadhaar number from July 1, 2017. Existing PAN card holders were asked to link it with Aadhaar to avoid their PAN card becoming invalid.




5 Dariya News
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that the provision of Aadhaar Act that seeks to validate the data collected from 2009 to 2016 when the statute was enacted was "badly drafted" and it could not be read to mean waiving of fundamental rights of the people.The five judge constitution bench headed by ...






NDTV
This online facility works on an Aadhaar verification-based method, wherein the requested changes are compared with the details in the Aadhaar ... dated November 21, 2017: "Many references are being received that members are facing problem in seeding Aadhaar with UAN due to mismatch in Name, ...