AADHAAR

AADHAAR

Aadhaar number is a 12-digit random number issued by the UIDAI (“Authority”) to the residents of India after satisfying the verification process laid down by the Authority.

1. Eligibility for Aadhaar: Any individual, irrespective of age and gender, who is a resident of India, may voluntarily enrol to obtain an Aadhaar number.
2. Information Collected:
   • Demographic information: Name, Date of Birth or Age (declared), Gender, Address, Mobile Number (optional) and Email ID (optional)
   • Biometric information: Ten Fingerprints, Two Iris Scans, and Facial Photograph

Benefits of Aadhaar

1. For Individuals

• Biometric Identity Proof: Aadhaar has become one of the most reliable identity proofs. It is the first identity document for an estimated 65-70 million individuals.
• Access to services: Provides easy, hassle-free access to services such as banking, LPG, phone number etc.
• Financial Inclusion: Aadhaar allows opening a bank account instantly. It helps in doing KYC easily.

• Migrants: Provides identification to a large number of migrants to avail services.
• Ease of availability: Convenient for individuals to have a copy of Aadhaar that is also easily accessible along with reduced risk of an original document being stolen/misplaced.
• Inclusion of those without any existing identity documents: The “Introducer” system which has been approved for data verification for the UIDAI will enable such residents to establish an identity.

2. For Government

• Authentication Service: The UIDAI will offer online authentication services for agencies who wish to validate a resident’s identity.
• Targeted Service Delivery: This service will enable confirmation of the entitlement actually reaching the intended beneficiary.
• Improved services: Clear accountability and transparent monitoring would significantly improve access and quality of service.
• Reduces subsidy cost: Due to reduction in intermediaries.
• Reduction in fake identities: Due to linkage with biometrics, there is less chance of fake identities and ghost beneficiaries.
• Plugging leakages: Aadhaar helped in plugging leakages via targeted public delivery and social support systems.
• Working in government offices: Aadhaar-Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) was introduced in government offices to check late-arrival and absenteeism of government employees.
• Electronic benefit transfers: UID-enabled-Bank-Account network directly remit benefits to residents without the heavy costs associated with benefit distribution.

Issues with Aadhaar

1. Security issues

• Lack of special features: It lacks any traditional security features present in other photo-IDs such as a microchip, hologram, or an official seal, making it more vulnerable to being duplicated or faked.
• Possibility of locating transactions: From the verification log, it was possible to locate the places of transactions carried out by an individual [Justice Chandrachud].
• Data Leak: In 2018, around 200 official government websites accidentally made personal Aadhaar data public, highlighting the vulnerability.
• Privacy: Collection of identity data without adequate safeguards interferes with the fundamental right to privacy protected under Article 21 of the Constitution.

2. Governance issues

• Denial of services: An estimated 15 million children missed out on one or more mid-day meals because of difficulties with Aadhaar.
• Over-centralization: Aadhaar-linking has facilitated over-centralization of administrative controls.
• Sense of disempowerment: If a person does not get authenticated, there is no easy or accessible redress available, adding a sense of disempowerment.
• Ignoring other efforts: Privileging Aadhaar over other technologies that had a proven track record at improving administration displaced efforts to scale those up.

• Quantity fraud: Despite Aadhaar, there are still instances of people getting more or less than the allotted amount of food-grains under the PDS [India Spend].
• Failed transactions: UIDAI admitted that 6% of Aadhaar authentication requests using fingerprints are known to fail, and 8.5% using iris scans [LiveLaw 2018].

3. Exclusions

• Vulnerable sections: 30% of homeless and 27% of third-gender residents do not have Aadhaar [State of Aadhaar 2019].
• North-Eastern States: 90% of residents in Assam and 61% of residents in Meghalaya do not have Aadhaar [State of Aadhaar 2019].

4. Other issues

• Aadhar as the Money Bill: Passing of a Bill as a Money Bill has damaged the delicate balance of bicameralism which is a part of the basic structure [Justice Chandrachud].
• Acceptance as Proof of Citizenship: Although Aadhaar Act specifies that the Aadhaar Number is not a proof of citizenship, passport services accept it as a valid supporting document of citizenship.
• Increased transaction efforts: The effort required to avail existing benefits has gone up — longer waits at the ration shop, repeated trips for authentication, etc.

Features of Aadhaar (Static Information)

• Uniqueness: The deduplication process compares the resident’s demographic and biometric information to verify if the resident is already in the database or not.
• Portability: Aadhaar gives nationwide portability as it can be authenticated anywhere online.
• Random number: Aadhaar is a random number devoid of any intelligence. The enrolment process does not capture details like caste, religion, income, health, geography, etc.
• Scalable technology architecture: The UID architecture is open and scalable. Resident’s data is stored centrally and authentication can be done online from anywhere.
• Open-source technologies: It precludes dependence on specific computer hardware, specific storage, specific OS, specific database vendor, or any specific vendor technologies to scale.
• Proof of identity: Aadhaar is an ID, nothing more. It is a proof of identity and does not confer any right of citizenship or domicile in respect of an Aadhaar number holder.

Supreme Court Judgement on Constitutionality of Aadhaar Act, 2016

• Aadhar not making India a Surveillance state: As the purpose of transaction is not stored and the information collected remains in silos.
• Period of storage: The court struck down the regulation which permitted storing of verification logs for 5 years. Now, the logs should be deleted after 6 months.
• Voluntary use of Aadhaar: Aadhaar cannot be made mandatory for openings of a bank account and for getting mobile connections, for school admission.
• Aadhaar and PAN: Linking of Aadhaar and PAN is mandatory. The apex court also made Aadhaar mandatory for filing of Income Tax Return (ITR).
• Authentications by private entities: Court struck down Section 57 of the 2016 Act making it illegal for private entities to conduct authentications.
• Aadhar and Privacy: Aadhaar Act has struck a fair balance between the right of privacy of the individual along with the right to life of the same individual as a beneficiary of government benefits.

• Aadhaar as Money Bill: The Court upheld the Speaker’s decision to recognize the Aadhaar Act as the Money Bill as the main objective of the Act is to extend benefits in the nature of aid, grant, or subsidy to the marginalized sections of the society with the support of the Consolidated Fund of India.
• National security: Supreme Court struck down Section 33(2) in the Aadhaar law which allowed sharing of data on the ground of national security.

Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 [STATIC INFORMATION]

• Objective of the Act: It aims to provide for good governance, efficient, transparent, and targeted delivery of subsidies, benefits and services, the expenditure for which is incurred from Consolidated Fund of India or State.
• Eligibility: Every resident [a person who has resided in India for 182 days] shall be entitled to obtain an Aadhaar number.
• Information to be submitted: To obtain an Aadhaar number, an individual has to submit his biometric and demographic information.
• Enrolment: At the time of enrolment, individuals will be informed of the manner in which information will be used, and the nature of recipients with whom information will be shared.
• Voluntary use: An individual may voluntarily use his Aadhaar number to establish his identity. Authentication of an individual’s identity via Aadhaar, for any service, may be made mandatory only by a law of Parliament.
• Aadhaar number of children: At the time of enrolling a child, the enrolling agency shall seek the consent of his parent or guardian. After attaining 18 years of age, a child may apply for cancellation of his Aadhaar.
• Disclosure of information in certain cases: Such as when the disclosure is pursuant to an order of High Court (or above) or when an officer not below the rank of a Secretary issues directions for disclosing information in the interest of national security.
• UIDAI Fund: All fees, grants, and charges received by the UIDAI shall be credited to this fund. The fund shall be used for expenses of the UIDAI, including salaries and allowances of its employees.
• Functions of authority: Specifying demographic and biometric information to be collected during enrolment, assigning Aadhaar numbers to individuals, authenticating Aadhaar numbers, and specifying the usage of Aadhaar numbers.
• Authentication: The UID authority will authenticate the Aadhaar number of an individual if an entity makes such a request. A requesting entity has to obtain the consent of an individual before collecting his information.
• Identification of clients: It amends the Telegraph Act, 1885, and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 to state that persons with a license to maintain a telegraph, banking companies, and financial institutions may verify the identity of their clients.
• Aadhaar ecosystem: It will include enrolling agencies, requesting agencies, and offline verification-seeking entities.
• Complaints: Courts can take cognizance of an offence if the UIDAI registers a complaint. Individuals can register complaints in certain cases, such as impersonation or disclosure of their identity.
• Penalties: UIDAI may initiate a complaint against an entity in the ecosystem for failure to comply with the Act or UIDAI’s directions or furnish information required by UIDAI.

Aadhaar and Privacy

Supreme Court in K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India held that the right to privacy is a fundamental right. The Court laid down the three-pronged proportionality test:

• Proportional and Rational Interference
• Backed by Law
• Legitimate state aim

Fulfilment of these tests in case of Aadhaar:

• Backed by law: The existence of the Aadhaar Act.
• Legitimate state aim: Delivery of welfare benefits fulfills the first two requirements.
• Proportionality: The purpose of the act is to ensure deserving beneficiaries of welfare schemes are correctly identified; it also achieves the balancing of two competing fundamental rights: right to privacy on the one hand and right to food, shelter, and employment on the other.

Privacy issues with Aadhaar:

• Mass Surveillance: It makes its users even more vulnerable to leakage of biometric and demographic information, thus affecting the privacy of individuals.
• Identity theft: With Aadhaar-enabled Payments System (AePS), the Aadhaar project has created a vulnerability to identity fraud, even identity theft.
• From the personal integrity point of view: The discomfort from information about our lives being available to people or institutions with whom we do not wish to share it.
• Violation of bodily integrity: If the Aadhaar number is ‘seeded’ into every database, the Government will be able to profile people by pulling in information from various databases using that single identifier.
• Self-censorship: The possibility of profiling is likely to lead to self-censorship and is likely to stifle dissent [Jean Drèze].
• Creation of Personal Data Economy: It will monetize information about people’s personal life ahead of creating adequate digital and legal literacy.
• Identification without consent using Aadhaar data: For example, identifying people by inappropriate matching of fingerprints/iris scans/facial data, or using demographic data to identify people without their consent and beyond legal provisions.

Thus, while Aadhaar is necessary for efficient service delivery and governance, India also needs robust data protection and privacy laws to protect the privacy and interests of the citizens.