Does the Union Government have to direct the telecom service providers to delete biometric and Aadhaar details of their customers following the #Aadhaar judgment? A short thread.
1. We all know that the judgment had three separate judgments. One by majority of Sikri J writing for himself, CJI Misra and Khanwilkar J.
There was a minority judgment by Chandrachud J which was partly concurring with Sikri J
and another partly concurring judgment by Bhushan J
There was a minority judgment by Chandrachud J which was partly concurring with Sikri J
and another partly concurring judgment by Bhushan J
2. On the question of illegality and unconstitutionality of the telecom-Aadhaar linking exercise, all the five judges agreed and struck down the exercise and the 23rd March 2016 circular of the DoT as unconstitutional.
3. Chandrachud J, in his minority judgment further directed the Union of India and TRAI to direct the telecom service providers to delete the Aadhaar data obtained under that illegality.
4. Now several people seem to have this question of whether this direction is binding given that it was only a minority opinion.
5. The answer, to the best of my knowledge, is Yes. It is binding.
6. Absent a specific disagreement on the points or a blanket disagreement on the points by the majority, the law laid down by minority judgments are equally binding and enforceable. In this case, all the five agreed on the reasoning behind unconstitutionality of the DoT circular
7. Several High Court judgments exist to support the proposition that binding law can also be found in minority judgments, when the majority did not deal with the issue that minority dealt with, absent a specific disagreement.
8. (See: ILR (2009) 4 Del 280, AIR 1964 Bombay 170 , AIR 1977 All 482 etc.)
9. There is also atleast one Supreme Court precedent to suggest that non-majority judgments may create binding directions if there is no specific dissent on that point or if there is implied concurrence on that point by other judge(s) (See (1997) 5 SCC 201)).
10. Union of India and TRAI *will* have to direct the telecom service providers to delete Aadhaar data in compliance with the directions of the Supreme Court.
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