{"id":53533,"date":"2025-09-09T20:35:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T15:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=53533"},"modified":"2025-09-11T12:58:35","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T07:28:35","slug":"aadhaar-valid-proof-for-sir-supreme-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/09-09-2025\/aadhaar-valid-proof-for-sir-supreme-court","title":{"rendered":"Aadhaar Should Be Treated as Valid Proof for SIR Exercise: Supreme Court"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/Governance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Recently, the Supreme Court has directed the<strong> Election Commission of India (ECI) <\/strong>to accept <strong>Aadhaar as a valid identity document<\/strong> for the <strong>ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) <\/strong>of electoral rolls in Bihar.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ebecf0\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Background: Bihar\u2019s Special Intensive Revision (SIR)<\/strong><br>&#8211; It is a <strong>de novo exercise<\/strong> to update the electoral rolls in Bihar ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections.<br>&#8211; It involves house-to-house verification and requires voters to submit documentation proving their identity and citizenship.<br>&#8211; It is being carried out under <strong>Section 21 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 (RP Act)<\/strong>, which authorises the EC to undertake special revisions at any time for reasons recorded in writing.<br><strong>Supreme Court\u2019s Observations<\/strong><br>&#8211; The <strong>Supreme Court\u2019s prima facie<\/strong> view was that <strong>Aadhaar, along with voter ID (EPIC) and ration card,<\/strong> should be added to the existing list of 11 documents accepted for verification.<br>&#8211; It brings the <strong>total to 12 documents,<\/strong> offering greater flexibility to voters, <strong>especially those enrolled after 2003 <\/strong>who need to establish their date and place of birth to confirm citizenship.<br>&#8211; However, it also noted that while Aadhaar has wide coverage and utility, it <strong>does not establish citizenship.<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About Aadhaar<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It was <strong>launched in 2009<\/strong> and later given <strong>statutory backing<\/strong> through the <strong>Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016,<\/strong> <strong>passed as a Money Bill in Parliament.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It empowered the <strong>Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)<\/strong> under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to issue <strong>12-digit Aadhaar numbers<\/strong> and regulate its use for authentication and service delivery.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It captures <strong>biometric (fingerprints and iris scans)<\/strong> and <strong>demographic data<\/strong> to create a<strong> unique identity for each resident.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Aadhaar has been issued to <strong>over 1.3 billion residents,<\/strong> making it the world\u2019s largest biometric ID system, as of 2025.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Supreme Court on Aadhaar<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Right to Privacy Judgment (2017):<\/strong> A <strong>nine-judge bench<\/strong> of the Supreme Court <strong>unanimously ruled<\/strong> that <strong>privacy is a fundamental right under Article 21<\/strong> of the Constitution.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It laid the groundwork for evaluating Aadhaar\u2019s constitutionality, especially regarding data protection and surveillance concerns, and <strong>overturned earlier rulings <\/strong>that denied privacy as a fundamental right.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Aadhaar Verdict (2018): <\/strong>A <strong>five-judge bench<\/strong> upheld the constitutional validity of Aadhaar, but with significant caveats.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Supreme Court of India <strong>upheld<\/strong>:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Aadhaar is valid for welfare schemes and subsidies.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Aadhaar Act passed as a Money Bill was deemed constitutionally acceptable.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Aadhaar promotes good governance and empowers marginalized communities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It struck down or limited the use of Aadhaar as a mandatory requirement for bank accounts, mobile SIM cards, and school admissions.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The national security exception in the Aadhaar Act was struck down.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Aadhaar is not proof of citizenship or date of birth.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It emphasized that Aadhaar collects minimal data, and UIDAI\u2019s architecture does not enable surveillance or profiling.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Recent Developments and Clarifications<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/28-02-2022\/employees-provident-funds-epf-scheme\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/28-02-2022\/employees-provident-funds-epf-scheme\">Employees\u2019 Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) <\/a><\/strong>recently <strong>removed Aadhaar <\/strong>from its list of acceptable documents for verifying date of birth.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <strong>Registrar General of India (RGI)<\/strong> clarified that <strong>Aadhaar is not mandatory for birth or death registration<\/strong> under the <strong>Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Aadhaar continues to be <strong>accepted voluntarily,<\/strong> but with safeguards \u2014 such as <strong>masking the first eight digits<\/strong> when used in sensitive databases.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/india\/supreme-court-asks-ec-to-consider-aadhaar-as-valid-id-for-bihar-voter-rolls-with-a-clarification-10237389\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Source: IE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Recently, the Supreme Court has directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to accept Aadhaar as a valid identity document for the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<h3><strong>About Aadhaar<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">It was launched in 2009 and later given statutory backing through the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016, passed as a Money Bill in Parliament.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">It empowered the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to issue 12-digit Aadhaar numbers and regulate its use for authentication and service delivery.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">It captures biometric (fingerprints and iris scans) and demographic data to create a unique identity for each resident.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Aadhaar has been issued to over 1.3 billion residents, making it the world\u2019s largest biometric ID system, as of 2025.<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/09-09-2025\/aadhaar-valid-proof-for-sir-supreme-court\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read\u00a0More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53533"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53572,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53533\/revisions\/53572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}