INDIA
Supreme Court judge, Justice D Y Chandrachud, the son of late Chief Justice of India Y V Chandrachud, today recalled a personal experience during the hearing on the Aadhaar issue that his mother, who was suffering for Alzheimer's disease, had faced difficulty in authentication to get pension.
Supreme Court judge, Justice D Y Chandrachud, the son of late Chief Justice of India Y V Chandrachud, today recalled a personal experience during the hearing on the Aadhaar issue that his mother, who was suffering for Alzheimer's disease, had faced difficulty in authentication to get pension.
Justice Chandrachud is part of the 5-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, which is hearing a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar scheme and its enabling law of 2016.
During the hearing, the bench, also comprising Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, said Aadhaar authentication failures could create problems for those in need and some solution has to be found to address the issue.
Recalling his experience, Justice Chandrachud said "my mother, who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease was entitled to family pension being the wife of a former Chief Justice of India (late Justice Y V Chandrachud).
"She had to give a thumb impression for authentication. I recall, every month the bank manager or his representative would come home and affix her thumb print on certain documents and only then could she get the pension", Justice Chandrachud said.
"So it (authentication) is a serious issue. It's not largesse. It is not charity...we have to find answers for these problems," he said, adding that there was a class of needy people who may not get the benefits due to authentication failures.
The apex court judge was responding to the arguments of senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for former High Court judge Justice (Retd) K S Puttaswamy, who said a 90-year-old woman suffering from various ailments is being threatened that her bank account could be closed for non-authentication by Aadhaar.
Divan said that through that bank account, she was getting her pension and she uses that money for her treatment as she has no one else to look after her.
"There are numerous cases where the Aadhaar authentication failures of the elderly, people suffering from any disease or physical disability, leads to denial of benefits to those otherwise entitled to it," Diwan said.
He said in many villages, young people have now migrated to cities or nearby towns and only the elderly residing there were dependent on their pension or other grants. But due to Aadhaar authentication failure, they were not getting the benefits.
Divan sought to assail a World Bank report which had praised the Aadhaar project and which was relied upon by the government to bolster its case for the 12-digit unique identification number. He said the World Bank had partnered with a private entity for preparing the report titled 'Identification for Development'.
Divan claimed that the same private entity was also the company with which UIDAI had partnered to facilitate Aadhaar.
He said there were 144 notifications issued by various ministries and departments of the government which covered 252 schemes.
The senior lawyer concluded his rejoinder arguments saying that essential government schemes that apply to children or relate to citizen's rehabilitation, food, health and nutrition, should be excluded from the requirement of Aadhaar authentication.
The hearing remained inconclusive and will continue tomorrow.
On May 3, the Centre had strongly defended its decision to seed Aadhaar numbers with mobile phones, telling the top court that it could have been hauled up for contempt if the verification of mobile users was not undertaken by it.
However, the court had said that the government had misinterpreted its order and used it as a "tool" to make Aadhaar mandatory for mobile users.
The petitioners had referred to the technical experts' views on the technical aspect of the Aadhaar architecture and said that a real time surveillance of citizens was possible.
For the first time in a democracy, something like CIDR has been implemented and the apex court has to balance the human rights and new technologies that is capable of being misused, they had said.
Earlier, the court also did not agree with the government's contention that the Aadhaar law was correctly termed as a Money Bill by the Lok Sabha Speaker as it dealt with "targeted delivery of subsidies" for which funds come from the Consolidated Fund of India.
Raima Sen mourns Bharat Dev Varma's demise, pens emotional note for 'great father, great husband'
DNA TV Show: Ahead of Maharashtra poll results, MVA, Mahayuti engage in resort politics
Maharashtra: Stage set for assembly poll results; Mahayuti, MVA confident of their victories
All set for vote counting in Jharkhand tomorrow; NDA, JMM-led alliances confident of winning
Watch: Australia star inquires Rishabh Pant about his next IPL team, gets 2-word reply
Shah Rukh Khan’s house Mannat was first offered to his industry rival…, but he refused because...
The Visionary Who Promises a Blue Sky for India: Holger Thorsten Schubart’s G20 Climate Speech
The Surge of High-End Living: Luxury Residential Market to Outpace Other Segments
FeFCon 2024 to be Held in Bangalore: A Premier Event on Fever Management
'That’s wild': Noida man turns cigarette butts into teddy bears in viral video, watch
London Airport evacuates passengers over security threat, thousands stranded
The World’s First Innovative Iron Supplement to Combat Iron Deficiency and Anaemia
Meet grandmother who became fashion icon after trying on her granddaughter’s clothes
IND vs AUS: Rishabh Pant joins Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma in elite WTC list, becomes 3rd Indian to...
'All scripted drama...': Puneet Superstar allegedly assaulted by influencers in viral video, watch
Actress Ana de Armas caught kissing Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel’s son in viral photos
Oreshnik's Shadow: Will Russia's hypersonic missile force west to back down?
‘You’re So Beautiful’: World’s tallest woman meets world’s shortest woman over tea, pics go viral
Delhi-NCR Air Pollution: Consequences of GRAP-4 are drastic, may have adverse effects, says SC
Delhi-NCR Air Pollution: Schools likely to stay closed till..., check city-wise update
Maharashtra: 3 killed, 9 hospitalised after gas leak at fertiliser plant in Sangli
THIS farm is selling a cup of coffee for Rs 28000, but there's a twist, it is...
Chhattisgarh: 10 Maoists killed after encounter with security personnel in Sukma
Mukesh Ambani's SUPERHIT plan for Jio users, offers unlimited 5G access for 1 year for just Rs...
IND vs AUS 1st Test: KL Rahul's dismissal sparks DRS controversy in Perth Test
Dense fog, heavy rain predicted in these states till November 25; check here
Oreshnik Hypersonic Missile: Which nations are within its range?
Bihar teacher, principal reach school in drunken state; know what happened next
'I have faced a lot of...': Arjun Kapoor REVEALS his biggest fear amid break up with Malaika Arora
How millions of Indians may get affected due to US indictment of Gautam Adani in bribery case
Amid divorce rumours with Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan says 'missing someone is okay but...'
After Bibles, watches and sneakers, Donald Trump is now selling autographed guitars, price is...
Delhi pollution: Air quality improves to ‘very poor’ category, AQI at...
Vladimir Putin's BIG threat, warns he could strike UK with new ballistic missile if...
Shillong Teer Results TODAY November 22, 2024 Live Updates: Check winning numbers here
Somebody misbehaved with Alia Bhatt on Highway sets then Imtiaz Ali had to...
Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal reveals twist behind Rs 200000 job fee, closes application window
Days after Ratan Tata's demise, Tata Group's Rs 131000 crore company inks pact with ADB for...