Thread by @prasanna_s

#Aadhaar judgment. Thread. Will be tweeting opinions as they are pronounced. Final conclusions based on majority will be clear only at the end of the thread.

Waiting for the Bench to assemble.

Bench has assembleed. Judgment is voluminous.

First judgment is by Justice Sikri. CJI and Khanwilkar J have concurred with him. DYC J and Ashok Bhushan J have written separate opinions.

Sikri J extolling the virtues of "uniqueness".

How the word Aadhaar has completely dislodged the hindi dictionary meaning for Aadhaar by the Id provided by UIDAI.

Sikri J: Structure of Act reveals UIDAI is a statutory body for assinging unique numbers and authentication. Uniqueness based on submission of demographic and biometric data submission to uidai.

Sikri J: Challenges on the ground of FR violation and violation of constitutional values. Violation of privacy. Surveillance state.

Sikri J: Response of Govt of India based on minimality of data collected. Aadhaar enrolment process foolproof. Same foolproofness at the time of authentication.

Sikri j: Response by GoI also claims authentication is on minimality of data...not even purpose is collected. Profilin not possible. Cites the ppt by Dr. Pandey.

Sikri J: Fundamental difference from UID and other IDs. Uniqueness of UID is the difference as claimed by GoI.

Sikri J: Empowers marginalised section of societies as it gives identity to such persons.

Sikri J: Validity of Act is also tested on manifest arbitrariness challenge also which was rejected in Binoy Viswam.

Sikri J : On the doctrine of proportionality and the right to privacy, the important part of the challenge. Says the judgment discusses privacy case extensively and follows it.

Sikri J: Question on whether strict scrutiny or just fair and reasonable standard to be adopted in testing constitutionality of laws. Says Puttaswamy leaves that open. And that this judgment had adopted the latter standard.

Sikri J: Respect grounded in human dignity is exposited in the judgment. Also discussed is dignity not only in reference to individual but also dignity within the community.

Sikri J: We follow the "larger public interest" as against the "compelling public state interest" test.

Sikri J: We have framed ten issues.

Issue 1: Does Aadhaar create a surveillance state and therefore unconstitutional?

Issue 1 Conclusion: Minimality of data and safeguards as explained by CEO Dr. Pandey noted including all security measures.

Issue 1 conclusion: Profiling not possible using aadhaar. Sufficient safeguards to disallow it. However some provisions are struck down.

Five year rule for archival storage of transaction logs is struck down.

Metadata storage is struck down.

33 (1) is read down to afford an opportunity for data subject to be heard.

National security exception under Section 33 is struck down. Lays down that Joint secretary mechanism is arbitrary and requires a judicial warrant.

Section 57 struck down. Private companies cannot insist on Aadhaar.

Issue 2: whether Aadhaar act violates right to privacy. Says they have examined only Section 7 and 8 for this purpose.

Issue 2 conclusion by Sikri J:
Purpose of the Act is legitimate.
Rational connection to purpose is satisfied.
Balancing test satisfied by the Act insofar as Aadhaar only collects minimal data.

On Exclusion, probabilistic method etc - Sikri J holds that such Exclusion is concerning - but inclusion is the purpose of the Act, and if we have to throw out the full Act on that ground it would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Sikri J cautions that the court is not trivialising exclusion but has taken on record the statement ot AG that noone will be deprived and have also provided guidelines to prevent and minimise exclusion.

Sikri J: Suitable provisions to be made in regulations for establishing id when aadhaar auth fails.

Sikri J: CBSE NET cannot make Aadhaar mandatory.

Sikri J: enrolment of children only with parental consent. They should be given an option to exit on attaining majority.

Sikri J: Sarvasiksha Abhiyan etc and other schemes incident on Aadhaar cannot make Aadhaar mandatory. But can insist on enrolment number with parental consent.

Sikri J: section 2(d) read down to not include meta data of transactions.

Sikri J: 2 (b) definition of resident to exclude illegal immigrants.

Section 29 is upheld as valid. However regulations may be challenged later. But the current regulations are valid.

Section 33 (2) struck down as mentioned above.

Section 47 struck down and says even individuals must be entitled to file complaints.

Section 57 struck down to the extent that "any purpose" should mean any purpose backed by law as far as state authorities are concerned.

Fully struck down qua private entities.

Money Bill issue: Aadhaar Act could have been passed as a Money Bill.

Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act upheld.

PMLA Rule providing for mandatory Bank account and aadhaar bank linking is struck down as unconstitutional. Does not satisfy the test of proportionality.