The Supreme Court is delivering its crucial verdict on a batch of pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the Centre's flagship Aadhaar scheme and its enabling 2016 law. The court has already struck down mandatory linking of Aadhaar numbers with mobile phones and bank accounts. The judgment by Justice Chandrachud, one of the five judges delivering the verdict, has asked all telecom operators to immediately delete and destroy the Aadhaar data that they have collected.
A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra had on May 10 reserved the verdict on the matter after a marathon hearing that went on for 38 days, spanning four-and-half months.
As many as 31 petitions, including one by former High Court judge K.S. Puttaswamy, have been filed in the matter.
