Data collection by private agencies for Aadhaar not a good idea: SC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to expedite the constitution of a larger bench to decide if right to privacy is a fundamental right under the Constitution.

“There is no need to do this immediately. We have limited resources,” the court said.

A bench of chief justice J.S. Khehar, justices N.V. Ramana and D.Y. Chandrachud was hearing a plea to fast-track the privacy issue in a case challenging the legal validity of Aadhaar.

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Senior advocate Shyam Divan appearing on behalf of Nagrik Chetna Manch, a Pune-based non-profit which challenged the legal validity of Aadhaar, said that privacy concerns are immediate.

“Collection of data by private companies is not a great idea,” the court observed orally while refusing to set up the constitution bench immediately.

The petitioners had challenged the unique identification (UID) number on the grounds that the move to collect information from individuals and sharing such data is a violation of the right to privacy.

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On 11 August 2015, a three-judge bench of the apex court had referred a batch of petitions, challenging Aadhaar to a larger bench to decide whether the right to privacy is a fundamental right. The bench had also restricted the use of Aadhaar to cooking gas and LPG subsidy.

In October 2015, a five-judge bench expanded use of Aadhaar to a few other government schemes but did not look into the privacy issue.