ForumIAS announcing GS Foundation Program for UPSC CSE 2025-26 from 10th August. Click Here for more information.
Aadhaar contradicts the role of the state
Context
The Aadhaar scheme contradicts the role of the state as the custodian of the citizens’ fundamental right of privacy. A duty is cast on the government and its agencies to protect the citizen’s crucial personal data from commercial exploitation by private corporates, petitioners challenging the scheme submitted in the Supreme Court
State exploiting personal rights of individuals’
Referring to the nine-judge Bench judgment which upheld privacy as a fundamental right, senior advocate Shyam Divan and advocate Vipin Nair submitted before a Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra that Aadhaar enrolment and subsequent leakages of personal mass data show that the state itself is exploiting personal rights of individuals by giving it to private corporates who use it for commercial ends
A Kill Switch
The state is empowered with a ‘switch’ by which it can cause the civil death of an individual. Where every basic facility is linked to Aadhaar and one cannot live in society without an Aadhaar number, the switching off of Aadhaar completely destroys the individual
No agreement with UIDAI
- None of these private agencies which enrol citizens and collect their personal data have any agreement with the UIDAI
- There was no audit check of these private collection agents to whom the UIDAI had outsourced the work of personal data collection for years prior to the Act.
