Aadhaar presupposes privacy is fundamental right: Jaitley -Governance Now

Aadhaar presupposes privacy is fundamental right: Jaitley

“Parliament cannot abrogate its job of legislating if apex court is hearing a petition”

GN Bureau | March 16, 2016

#Aadhaar #UIDAI #arun jaitley #parliament #law #supreme court #privacy #fundamental rights

Right to privacy is one of the hotly debated issues when the matter of Aadhaar comes up. On Wednesday, initiating a discussion in the Rajya Sabha on the Aadhaar bill, finance minister Arun Jaitley said this legislation presumes the right to privacy is a fundamental right.

That is quite a conclusive statement from the government, though it was immediately followed by fine print which would dilute it a lot. Jaitley added that the right to privacy is part of Article 21 of the constitution – the right to life and liberty. However, as the right to life and liberty is not unrestricted, and is subject to law, the question, according to Jaitley, is only if the restrictions applied on this right to privacy in this legislation are just and fair.

He said the new bill had improved upon the UPA version and had stringent provisions to protect privacy, as it makes mandatory to have a committee’s ok for sharing a person’s biometrics and that decision can be reviewed by a committee headed by the cabinet secretary, and this sharing will be done only for one purpose – national security.

“Individual right has to give way to national security,” he said. He, however, did not respond to the argument that “national security” is a term undefined and open to interpretation or even misuse.

Meanwhile, Jaitley also defended the move to legislate on privacy when the supreme court is seized of the matter. He insisted that parliament cannot abrogate its power to legislate just because the court is hearing a petition on this matter.

Comments

Other News

“Game” of cricket: Governance lessons from India’s favourite sport

India’s cricket journey is more than a record of sporting triumphs; it is a live case study in strategy, incentives, and equilibrium: the very foundations of Game Theory. As India prepares for its eight-match white-ball series against Australia, the world’s most-watched rivalry will again unfol

In this year of extreme rainfall, climate change has amplified deluge

Southwest Monsoon 2025 recently concluded with ‘above-normal’ rainfall to the tune of 108% of the long-period average (LPA). This is second consecutive year in the last decade to record above normal rains. Climate change has a critical role in driving the rainfall on the higher side, according

This Diwali, as we clean our homes, let`s clean our digital lives too

Every year, as Diwali approaches, I begin my annual ritual of cleaning – opening drawers, cupboards, and those mysterious “boxes of everything” we all seem to have. It starts as an act of tidying up, but it always turns into a little journey of rediscovery. Among the old receipts and forg

Sea leave rise: Multi-level adaptive governance needed to meet the challenge

By the end of this century, global sea levels may rise by more than 1 metre, and the mean sea level rise is expected to increase by 180 mm. Climate change is one of the gravest issues before us and one of the most pressing issues linked to the climate change is the sea level rise. The coastal communities a

Rethinking the funder-practitioner relationship in capacity development

The Human Capacity Development landscape in the social development context has evolved significantly over the years. From the more simplistic term “training,” it has now developed into a much more nuanced concept, “Competency-Based Capacity Building” (CBCB). Yet, one question persis

The economics of smart cities

Imagine a city where trash isn’t trash, energy isn’t wasted, and economic prosperity isn’t achieved at the cost of human wellbeing. A city where every rupee invested in infrastructure yields returns not just in roads and buildings, but in health, jobs, equality, and dignity. Smart city pr