Justice K.S.Puttaswamy(Retd) vs Union Of India on 26 September, 2018 After this premise, however, His Lordship accepts, in order to define what an amendment is according to the Indian Constitution, the reasoning of Lord Greene in Bidie v. General Accident, Fire and Life Assurance Corporation 14 and that of Justice Holmes in Towne v. Eisner15, which affirm that to understand a word it is necessary to understand the context in which it is inserted. To strengthen this, James v. Commonwealth of Australia16 is also referred to. We have stated the trend in brief with a purpose. Number of judgments of U.K. Courts, German Supreme Court, European Commission of Human Rights (ECHR), U.S. Supreme Court etc. were cited. However, there is no similarity in approach by these 14 Bidie v. General Accident, Fire and Life Assurance Corporation (1948) 2 All ER 995, 998. 15 Towne v. Eisner, 245 US 418. 16 James v. Commonwealth of Australia, (1936) AC 578. Courts in deciding a particular issue by applying different principles, particularly when it comes to the issues of data protection and privacy. In this backdrop, it becomes necessary, while referring to these judgments, to keep in mind the ethos, cultural background and vast socio-economic problems of this country and on that basis to accept a particular norm, or for that matter, to formulate a constitutional norm which is relevant in our context. That is the endeavour which is made by us. (iv) Many arguments of the petitioners relate to the working of the system. The petitioners had argued that the architecture of Aadhaar, by its very nature, is probabilistic and, therefore, it may result in exclusion, in many cases. Therefore, rather than extending subsidies, benefits and services to the section of society for which these are meant, it may have the tendency to exclude them from receiving such subsidies, benefits and services. The respondents, on the other hand, have stated on affidavit that the attempt of the respondents would be to ensure that no individual who is eligible for such benefits etc. is deprived form receiving those benefits, even when in a particular case, it is found that on authentication, his fingerprints or iris are not matching and is resulting into failure. It was clarified that since Aadhaar project is an ongoing project, there may be some glitches in its working and there is a continuous attempt to make improvements in order to ensure that it becomes foolproof over a period of time. We have eschewed detailed discussion in respect of those arguments, which may not have much relevance when judging the constitutional validity of the Act and the scheme. However, such arguments of exclusion etc. leading to violation of Articles 14 and 21 are dealt with at an appropriate stage. But the argument based on alleged inaccurate claims of savings by the Authority/Union of India in respect of certain programmes, like saving of USD 11 billion per annum due to the Aadhaar project, as well as savings in the implementation of the MGNREGA scheme, LPG subsidy, PDS savings need not detain us for long. Such rebuttals raised by the petitioners may have relevance insofar as working of the Act is concerned. That by itself cannot be a ground to invalidate the statute. (v) As mentioned above, notwithstanding the passions and emotions evoked on both sides in equal measure, this Court has adopted a lambent approach while dealing with the issues raised, having a posture of calmness coupled with objective examination of the issues on the touchstone of the constitutional provisions. We are in the age of constitutional democracy, that too substantive and liberal democracy. Such a democracy is not based solely on the rule of people through their representatives which is known as formal democracy. It also has other precepts like rule of law, Indian Kanoon - http://indiankanoon.org/doc/127517806/ 50