New Delhi: The Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that the deadline for linking Aadhaar to various programmes will be extended from December 31 to March 31, 2018.
This extension will be applicable to those who do not have an Aadhaar card and were going to enroll for the same.
The Government asked the Court to defer hearing the case because a committee was looking into drafting a data protection law.
However, this extension will not be applicable to those who have an Aadhaar and hence are liable to enroll by the December deadline.
This proposal came from the government as it stated that according to the Right to Privacy verdict, the judges had left this matter for expert determination so that a robust regime of data protection framework could be devised.
The government said that since the committee headed by Justice BN Srikrishna, in a meeting on October 16, 2017, had decided to look into amendments or comments each part of Draft Data Protection Bill may require and see if any amendments to the Aadhaar act are needed.
The next meeting of the expert committee is slated to be held on November 7, 2017.
Shyam Divan appearing for the petitioners vociferously opposed such a proposal and stated that the hearing which was scheduled to happen in November, 2017, must happen despite of the date extension.
“The manner in which Aadhaar is spreading is completely unconstitutional. People's bank accounts are being wiped out. The CBSE is putting it as a mandate. Can a child take a risk unless there is a categorical statement? A schoolchild can't go and give an exam without his fingerprints are taken, like a prisoner. This is a case of civil rights and needs to be heard,” Divan said.
However, Justice DY Chandrachud stated that the date of hearing was decided as November because the earlier deadline was December and now with it being extended to March, “What was the hurry? We should not rush the drafting of the data protection law,” he said.
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