Aadhaar may cause death of citizens' civil rights: Shyam Divan in SC

A nine-judge constitution bench of the apex court had held that Right to Privacy was a Fundamental Right under the Constitution. Several petitioners challenging the validity of Aadhaar had claimed it

The five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court has begun hearing the matter related to the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar Act on Wednesday. The five-judge Constitution bench is headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and four other judges Justices A.M. Khanwilkar, Adarsh Kumar Sikri, D.Y.Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan.

Shyam Divan Shyam Divan appearing for petitioner says, "It relies on probabilistic system...they capture fingerprints, facial photograph and Iris; But for authentication, they don't compare the whole fingerprint"

"They take, say 100 points of the fingerprint, and compare for a match of certain number of those points. All points will not match because of various factors like sweat, dust etc. Same applies for Iris. A result is a huge number of authentication failures", he argued.

Divan told the five-judge Constitution bench that 'Aadhaar may cause the death of citizens' civil rights. A people's Constitution is being sought to be converted into a State's Constitution.'

A nine-judge constitution bench of the apex court had held that Right to Privacy was a Fundamental Right under the Constitution. Several petitioners challenging the validity of Aadhaar had claimed it violated privacy rights.

In post-lunch session, Shyam Divan argued that the way in which the programme is structured allows information to fall into the hands of private parties.

"Can I be asked to leave an implant of my body wherever I go? That happens only in a totalitarian State, not a democracy," Divan asked.

The Bench rose for the day, hearing to continue tomorrow.

OneIndia