Was that a Non-Ruling or an Awesome Ruling?

On tricky, thorny issues, you’d expect our politicians to wiggle and find a way to not make a decision either way. But it is amazing that our courts can do the same to0. No, not by delaying the trial indefinitely but by delivering a ruling on the case that is effectively the equivalent of not ruling either way! Let me elaborate.

The Aadhar case verdict was watched with great interest by many. Our courts ruled that privacy is a fundamental right, subject to reasonable restrictions. Ajay Bhushan Pandey, the CEO of UIADI (Unique Identification Authority of India) cited the exceptions allowed by the court ruling:
“The Court has given examples of legitimate state interests such as national security, preventing crime, encouraging innovation and spread of knowledge, and preventing the dissipation of welfare benefits.”

Ok, but does that mean Aadhar can or cannot be made mandatory? And what does that mean about the current usages of Aadhar? Are they ok or not? Here’s Pandey’s take on the current usage of Aadhar for:
-         Subsidy schemes: Falls under dissipation of welfare benefits;
-         SIM cards: Prevents impersonation and fraud;
-         Tax returns and bank accounts: Prevents crime (aka black money and money laundering).

Does this ruling put a check around future uses? A bit, but the phrase that it is allowed for “encouraging innovation” means there is no clear criteria. Usage will almost certainly be decided on a case by case basis. For example, Pandey argues that use of Aadhar for digital payments via BHIM Aadhar is an example of innovation.

So what just happened with this ruling? Did the courts find a very clever way to allow the usage of Aadhar while also saying the right to privacy is a fundamental right? Sort of having the cake and eating it too? Or did they want to sound a warning bell to the government that they should ensure security measures around the data are upto the mark to avoid getting tripped up on future usages of Aadhar? Or maybe all of those things?

 If that was what the courts intended, then I’ll say, “Well played!”

Comments

  1. Ramiah KumarAugust 30, 2017 at 1:01 PM

    I suppose it is completely true, with respect to the "Well played" finish point. Most of us feel exactly that way.

    This difficulty about aadhar is predictable. On the legislation side, the truth is every government faces uphill task. The oppositions job is to oppose anything done by the ruling government in India. The ruling governments would always want to grab 100% credit for anything done too. Political sidelining and downplaying the continuation issues and initiations done previously by others is all part of the game. Politics is politics.

    Thus, for good legislation to occur cooperation with parties across is a necessity, which if never easy. All parties will consider "what do I get out of it" and almost never be focused on in what way nation/society will benefit.

    Having a legislation addressing exhaustively the protection of individuals against misuse of collected information by the authorities is not possible. Without gross violations and perverse uses, as long as reasonable good coming out, it is all that the citizens can hope for. That should be possible of course.

    We should not also be looking up to judiciary to set right every lacuna in the domain of legislation. The best we can hope for would be some good level of functioning of both judiciary and legislation. There are protections from each going out of control and let's get on with what we have. Aspiring perfection amounts to living in fools' paradise.

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