As the Supreme Court began its hearing on constitutional validity of Aadhaar on Wednesday, the counsel arguing for the petitioners said the government 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 a society without an Aadhaar number, the switching off of Aadhaar completely destroys the individual," submitted senior advocate Shyam Divan before the five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra.
Divan, arguing against the consitutional validity of Aadhaar, questioned if the Constitution allows so much power to the government. "If the Aadhaar programme is allowed to continue unimpeded, it will hollow out the Constitution. Does the Constitution of India allow a program where every transaction is recorded?" he asked in the Supreme Court.
The arguments on Wednesday primarily centred around the issues of exclusions and right to privacy around Aadhaar. He lashed out against critics who claimed that the privacy crusaders against Aadhaar are not the commoners but the elite. "I'm pointing this out because in the privacy hearing, the government said that these are all elitist concerns. They are not. There are genuine, weighty issues," he said.
"Through a succession of marketing strategies and smoke and mirrors, the government had rolled out a program designed to tether every citizen to an electronic leash.
As the Aadhaar programme expands, the extent of profiling will expand," he further argued. "If the Aadhaar Act is upheld, then in the alternative, no citizen should be deprived of any right or benefit for the lack of an Aadhaar card," Divan added.
Claiming that no democratic society has engaged in a program of such scope and scale, Divan pointed out that there are "very few precedents to guide us from other countries and most of such cases that come closer validate the petitioners' concerns. Hence, petitioners have demanded for the right to opt out and have their data destroyed.”
