Govt bid to extend data dragnet clipped, partly

It is important to remember that a nine-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court led by then Chief Justice J.S. In its second Aadhaar judgment by 4-1, led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, the court held in a majority view that the right to privacy had to be balanced with the right to food, which is part of Article 21’s right to life with dignity, and as Aadhaar is a means to provide targeted subsidy, benefit and service to the needy, it does not to that extent violate the right to privacy. The majority view had also accepted that the Aadhaar Act passes the test of a money bill, which did not require the approval of the Rajya Sabha, but retained the court’s right to judicial scrutiny of the Lok Sabha Speaker’s decision to declare a bill as a money bill, and it reiterated that the Rajya Sabha is a part of the basic structure of the Constitution. He saw through the political game played by the Narendra Modi government to overcome its lack of majority in the Upper House by making the Aadhaar Act a money bill which did not need the Rajya Sabha’s approval. The claims of finance minister Arun Jaitley and law and justice and information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on the September 26 verdict validating the Aadhaar Act should be taken with a pinch of salt.