SC's observations in Aadhaar case
New Delhi, Sep 26 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the legality of Aadhaar restricting it to disbursement of social benefits and junking its requirement for cell phones and bank accounts.
Here are the main observations of the apex court in its 1,448-page judgement:
* It is better to be unique than the best. Because, being the best makes you the number one, but being unique makes you the only one. 'Unique makes you the only one' is the central message of Aadhaar.
* Education took us from thumb impression to signature, technology has taken us from signature to thumb impression, again.
* The architecture of the Aadhaar Act reveals that the UIDAI is established as a statutory body which is given the task of developing the policy, procedure and system for issuing Aadhaar numbers to individuals and also to perform authentication thereof as per the provisions of the Act.
* Throughout their lives, individuals are supposed to provide information: be it admission in a school or college or at the time of taking job or engaging in any profession or business activity, etc.
When all this information is available in one place, in the form of Aadhaar card, it not only becomes unique, it would also qualify as a document of empowerment. Added with this feature, when an individual knows that no other person can clone it, it assumes greater significance.
* The scheme (Aadhaar) by itself can be treated as laudable, more so, when it is voluntary in nature. Howsoever benevolent the scheme may be, it has to pass the muster of constitutionality.
* In a scenario where the State is coming out with welfare schemes, there cannot be undue intrusion into personal autonomy on the pretext of conferment of economic benefits.
* The architecture of Aadhaar as well as provisions of the Aadhaar Act do not tend to create a surveillance state. This is ensured by the manner in which the Aadhaar project operates.
* The use of Aadhaar number has been increased manifold and, therefore, it is also necessary to take measures relating to ensuring security of the information provided by the individuals while enrolling for Aadhaar card.
* The entire aim behind launching this programme is the 'inclusion' of the deserving persons who need to get such benefits. When it is serving much larger purpose by reaching hundreds of millions of deserving persons, it cannot be crucified on the unproven plea of exclusion of some.
* What we are emphasising is that remedy is to plug the loopholes rather than axe a project, aimed for the welfare of large section of the society. Obviously, in order to address the failures of authentication, the remedy is to adopt alternative methods for identifying such persons, after finding the causes of failure in their cases.
* We again emphasise that no person rightfully entitled to the benefits shall be denied the same on such grounds. It would be appropriate if a suitable provision be made in the concerned regulations for establishing an identity by alternative means, in situations like change in formation of fingerprints for various reasons, or failure of iris test due to certain reasons including blindness of a person.
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Badminton coach arrested for raping 16-year-old girl in Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Apr 07 (PTI): A badminton coach was arrested for allegedly raping a 16-year-old girl who was taking training from him, police said on Monday.
The matter came to light after the girl's grandmother found that the minor had sent some of her nude pictures from her (grandmother's) phone to an unknown number and she immediately alerted her parents, they said.
When confronted by her mother, the girl revealed that the coach had sexually abused her on multiple occasions under the guise of giving her additional training sessions and warned her against disclosing about it to anyone, police said.
According to the police, the victim's mother in a complaint stated that their daughter enrolled for badminton coaching at a sports centre here two years ago. The coach allegedly sexually abused and harassed her on multiple occasions. He even took her to his house where he sexually assaulted her.
After her class 10 exam, she went to her grandmother's house and that on March 30 she sent her nude photos from her grandmother's mobile phone to the coach on his insistence, the complainant alleged.
Based on the complaint, a case was registered against the coach, a native of Tamil Nadu, under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and he was arrested in the case on Thursday, a senior police officer said.
During interrogation, the accused confessed that he had sexually abused the girl on multiple occasions and that he had taken her nude photos which were also found on his phone. Nude photos of other girls were also found on his phone, the officer said.
