Constitution Bench on Aadhaar today, says CJI

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, October 8

Chief Justice of India HL Dattu today assured the government that he would set up a Constitution Bench by Friday to consider the plea for allowing the use of Aadhaar cards on a voluntary basis for effective implementation of welfare schemes and regulation of financial, telecom and other sectors.

The CJI gave the assurance after Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi and a number of other law officers representing various sectors pleaded with a Bench headed by him that governance had been hit following the curbs imposed by the SC on the use of Aadhaar in August.

On Wednesday, a Bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar had refused to ease the curbs as the pleas for relaxation could be considered only by a larger Bench to which the PILs against Aadhaar would go for deciding the larger question of right to privacy which was allegedly infringed upon by the identification card scheme involving collection of people’s biometrics.

Rohatgi pleaded with the CJI to constitute the larger Bench immediately at least to go into the plea for easing the restrictions, if not the larger question of privacy.

“You wait till tomorrow evening,” the Chief Justice of India said, indicating that he would constitute the Bench by then.

In the August 11 interim order, the apex court restricted the use of Aadhaar to providing subsidy on foodgrains under the public distribution system (PDS), kerosene and cooking gas (LPG).