Aadhaar linked attendance challenged

Justice S M Subramaniam before whom the plea came up for hearing directed the State to file its counter by next week.

R Annal, a teacher at a Government school in Nagercoil, has submitted that Section 7 of Aadhaar Act very clearly states that Aadhaar number can be used to establish the identity of an individual as a condition for receipt of a subsidy, benefit or service, where the expenditure is incurred from, or the receipt is a part of the Consolidated Fund of India.

But the Tamil Nadu Government Order dated October 25, 2018, which seeks to implement the AEBAS in Government and Government aided schools would not fall within the purview of Section 7. Moreover, the imposition of Aadhaar based authentication for any purpose other than those mentioned in Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act would clearly be bereft of basic jurisdictional authority.

“The mandatory linking of Aadhaar based biometrics with attendance systems at schools violates the very essence of the Aadhaar Act which is purported to creating a voluntary identity programme,” Annal said.

Also, the petitioner on admitting that she has not enrolled for an Aadhaar card since the same is not mandatory and that she personally believes that it would entail a violation of her fundamental rights, submitted that the very act of obtaining biometric information for the purpose of maintaining attendance in schools is a violation of my fundamental right to privacy and autonomy.

“I state that my biometric information such as fingerprint, iris, etc., are fully owned by me and the State cannot compel me to submit the same for any reasons whatsoever,” she said while citing the Supreme Court clarification that Aadhaar cannot be imposed on an individual for purposes other than those laid down in the 2016 Act.

She also argued that the imposition of the Aadhaar-based biometrics attendance system was violative of fundamental right to privacy and autonomy and sought the Court to quash the GO as being arbitrary, unjust and illegal.