Aadhaar: India top court upholds world's largest biometric scheme

It's sad that the poor, who have faced the brunt of this scheme and have died or starved because of exclusion through this ill conceived and ill executed scheme, have been excluded once again by the majority verdict of the top court. Those who are digitally illiterate have also suffered because of fraud (made easier by the linkage of this identifier with many other things). Fortunately, some provisions such as linkage with bank accounts and telephone numbers have been struck down.

The court said: 'For the exclusion of a "minimal" three per cent, 97 per cent cannot be denied the benefits of Aadhaar'

Unfortunately, Aadhaar has done nothing but make life more difficult to the already excluded and ignored in the society. Except for one judge who wrote a scathing dissenting opinion on this, the rest have sided with the government instead of siding with the people.

Additionally, the majority upheld the linkage of Aadhaar with PAN (the tax identification number), thus indirectly making Aadhaar mandatory for almost everyone in the country. Surprisingly, it struck down linkage with bank accounts saying that the PMLA concerns were not proportionate.

My view is that the judgements were biased (didn't value the facts presented by the petitioners), twisted and also illogical.

One can only hope that this is not the end of the road, and that citizen's rights get another chance.