The Supreme Court of India will, on 17 January, begin hearing a batch of petitions challenging the validity of Aadhaar and the mandatory linkage of the biometric identity to several services and social welfare schemes.
The Constitution bench will comprise Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, and Justices AM Khanwilkar, AK Sikri, Ashok Bhushan and DY Chandrachud, according to the Supreme Court’s website.
The final hearing in the matter comes five years after the first petition was filed. The Supreme Court has dealt with cases related to it, such as the Aadhaar-PAN linkage and the Right to Privacy judgement which arose in the context of challenges to the Aadhaar scheme.
A separate Constitution bench of the Supreme Court of India had extended the deadline to link Aadhaar with all services — from bank accounts to mobile services — to 31 March from its earlier 31 December deadline. Petitioners had sought an extension to the deadline until the court finally decides on the challenge to the validity of the 12-digit unique ID.
Other Important Hearings
Other constitution benches, the compositions of which are still unknown, will also deal with:
- A challenge to its 2013 judgment which criminalised gay sex between consenting adults under Section 377 of the IPC
- The ban on the entry of women between 10 and 50 years of age into Kerala’s Sabarimala temple
- Whether a Parsi woman loses her religious identity if she marries a man of another religion
- A challenge to the validity of the penal law on adultery which currently punished only married men for having extra-marital sexual relationships with another married woman
These matters will also come up for hearing starting 17 January.
(With inputs from BloombergQuint)
(We Indians have much to talk about these days. But what would you tell India if you had the chance? Pick up the phone and write or record your Letter To India. Don’t be silent, tell her how you feel. Mail us your letter at lettertoindia@thequint.com. We’ll make sure India gets your message.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)