5-judge bench to decide if Aadhaar should be must

NEW DELHI: Chief Justice J S Khehar agreed on Wednesday to set up a five-judge Supreme Court bench on July 18 to decide petitioners’ plea for urgent stay on the Centre’s decision to make Aadhaar mandatory for almost all activities, including availing of social welfare scheme benefits.

After the government put off the June 30 deadline for registering for Aadhaar to September 30, a two-judge bench had referred to a five-judge bench a bunch of petitions seeking the urgent stay on the ground that Aadhaar was being made mandatory in violation of a Constitution bench’s direction that enrolling for the UID number must remain voluntary.

Joining petitioners’ counsel Shyam Divan in requesting for the urgent hearing on the pleas, attorney general KK Venugopal said the five-judge bench must first decide whether the petitions bee further referred to a nine-judge bench.

Venugopal told a bench of CJI Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud that an eight-judge bench of the SC had held in 1954 that right to privacy was not a fundamental right. This negated the petitioners’ core stand that biometrics, including fingerprints and iris scan, taken from a person for enrolling under Aadhaar violated his fundamental right to privacy, the AG said.

The bench said the five-judge bench would hear arguments for two days and take a decision on all contentious issues, including the stay on the government’s September 30 deadline and whether the petitions were required to be referred to a nine-judge bench.