Justice Chandrachud's dissent on Aadhaar: Profiling of voters, fraud on Constitution

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday pronounced a landmark judgement, declaring the Centre's flagship Aadhaar scheme as Constitutionally valid. Justice DY Chandrachud, who read his judgement after Justice AK Sikri, expressed his views different from that of the majority verdict pronounced by the five-judge bench.

"Aadhaar violates the right to privacy as it could possibly lead to profiling of persons and voters," Justice Chandrachud said.

He further said that he dissented on Aadhaar Act as a money bill. Justice Chandrachud said that the decision to treat a bill as a money bill is amenable to judicial review.

He held that Aadhaar Act cannot be treated as a Money Bill.

"Passing of the bill as a money bill when it does not qualify as a money bill is a fraud on Constitution and it violates basic structure," Justice Chandrachud said.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court observed that Aadhaar is secured and unique during the judgement in the case pertaining to making the unique ID mandatory for services like banking, telephone and various government schemes.

Reading out the judgment, Justice AK Sikri, said, "It is better to be unique than the best. Aadhaar has become the most talked about expression in the recent years."

He further pointed that the "attack on Aadhaar by petitioners is based on a violation of rights under Part III of the Constitution", adding that according to petitioners, making Aadhaar mandatory would "lead us to become a Surveillance State".

Centre has so far issued 139 notifications, practically touching every aspect of a citizen's day-to-day life, making Aadhaar linking mandatory.