SC Judgment on Aadhaar - a step in the right direction

The recent Supreme Court verdict should be relief to those who were hoping that constitutional validity of Aadhaar is preserved.

Key takeaways from the verdict:

1. Constitutional validity of Aadhaar is preserved. Importantly, despite the privacy concerns being cited by various parties, SC has retained the constitutional authority and need for Aadhaar
2. Aadhaar Card remains mandatory for PAN Linking. This will enable Government & Tax authorities to clamp down on incidences of multiple PANs, and support their anti-tax-evasion measures.
3. SC has suggested that the Aadhaar cannot be made mandatory for various services - e.g. telecom, bank accounts, school admissions. We need to study the verdict in greater detail to understand, how various service providers will react to these observations. It is possible that tagging of Aadhaar to various services could be stalled or slowed down due to this
4. SC emphasized on the importance of data protection, while also noting that minimal information is required for Aadhaar. It also noted, that the best feature of Aadhaar was its uniqueness. This lends sanctity to Aadhaar's role in distributing Government services and subsidies. However, the SC has also ruled that Aadhaar should not become a cause for denial of rights.

Further detailed reading of the judgment will give us more insight into implications of this judgment on many initiatives and subjects: Digital India, Fintech industry, Tax Compliance, Last-Mile-Delivery of Services. However, one thing is clear, the clouds of doubt on Aadhaar's essential validity have been dispelled. Government, UIDAI, and Industry can now resolve to address the remaining concerns about Aadhaar and to make it an instrument of true citizen empowerment.