Justice K.S.Puttaswamy(Retd) vs Union Of India on 26 September, 2018
policies, programmes, schemes, funding and methodology to be adopted for achieving its objectives.
12) The matter was addressed in the Seventeenth Finance Commission Report also which was tabled
in the Parliament on February 25, 2010. In this report, the Finance Commission suggested targeting
of subsidies through UIDAI. By April 2010, UIDAI came out with its Strategy Overview. This
Overview describes the features, benefits, revenue model and timelines of the UIDAI project.
Furthermore, it outlined the goal of the UID to serve as a universal proof of identity, allowing
residents to prove their identities anywhere in the country. The project would give the Government a
clear view of Indias population, enabling it to target and deliver services effectively, achieve greater
returns on social investments and monitor money and resource flows across the country. It was felt
that crucial to the achievement of this goal is the active participation of the central, state and local
Governments as well as public and private sector entities. Only with their support will the project be
able to realise a larger vision of inclusion and development in India.
13) A Cabinet Note bearing No. 4(4)/57/2010/CC-UIDAI for the Cabinet Committee on UIDAI was
submitted on May 12, 2010. The Note outlined a brief background of UIDAI, proposed an approach
for collection of demographic and biometric attributes of residents for the UID project and sought
approval of the Cabinet Committee for adoption of the aforesaid approach and suggested that the
same standards and processes be adhered to by the Registrar General of India for the NPR exercise
and all other Registrars in the UID system. Rationale for inclusion of iris biometrics was also
submitted with the aforesaid Cabinet Note to explain the need for capturing iris scans at the time of
capturing biometric details.
14) By September 2010 enrolment process of Aadhaar began with the nationwide launch of the
Aadhaar project. In December 2010, UIDAI came out with a report on enrolment process known as
UID Enrolment Proof-of-Concept Report studying enrolment proof-of-concept in three rural areas
of Karnataka, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh published by the UIDAI. According to this report, the
biometric matching analysis of 40,000 people showed that the accuracy levels achieved by both iris
and ten fingerprints were more than an order of magnitude better compared to using either of the
two individually. The multi-modal enrolment was adequate to carry out de-duplication on a much
larger scale, with reasonable expectations of extending it to all residents of India.
15) Going by the recommendation of the Chairman of UIDAI for providing legislative framework to
UIDAI, a Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on December 03, 2010 known as National
Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010.
16) Various other steps were taken to smoothen the process of enrolment. There were studies from
time to time on the effectiveness of the enrolment process. Notifications/orders were also issued by
the Reserve Bank of India stating that an Aadhaar letter would be recognised by Banks to open bank
accounts for a resident. Similar Orders/Notifications were issued by other authorities as well. On the
first anniversary of Aadhaar launch, which fell on September 29, 2011, announcement was made
that 10 crores enrolments and generation of more than 3.75 crores of Aadhaar had taken place.
Some of the reports submitted in due course of time, which are relevant for our purposes, are taken
note of at this stage:
Indian Kanoon - http://indiankanoon.org/doc/127517806/
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