The Supreme Court (SC) on 25 April clarified that it did not order mandatory linkage of mobile phone numbers with Aadhaar card. In the new revelation, even Centre admitted that there was no SC order for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to your mobile number.
This clarification was in response to a PIL filed by Lokniti Foundation.
Justice D Y Chandrachud during a hearing before a bench of (Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar and Ashok Bhushan) in the Lokniti Foundation case, said that the apex court never directed linking of SIM with UID. But the Union government’s circular says so.
There was no direction by the court.
Rakesh Dwivedi (advocate representing UIDAI), has clearly mentioned that the mandatory Aadhaar-mobile number linking move was based on the SC’s order to verify mobile numbers.
He added, “My submission is that the government had a legal basis to link Aadhaar with SIM by virtue of section 4 of the Telegraph Act and also, the measure is reasonable in the interest of national security.”
The UIDAI (body governing Aadhaar) said that its database cannot be breached or used to profile citizens.
Reportedly, he also claimed that the UIDAI was being unfairly targeted and banks and telecom companies have a much “bigger database” about the citizens comparatively.
