The Supreme Court on Friday sought response from the Center on a petition challenging the constitutional validity of an amendment to a law allowing private companies to use Aadhaar data for voluntary authentication of customers. CJI S. A. Bobde and Justice B. R. Gavai's bench gave this order was given to the Center during the hearing of Wombatkare's petition.
The petition alleged that the 2019 amendments to the Aadhar law are in violation of earlier orders of the apex court. Earlier, a bench of 5 judges had raised some objections while retaining the validity of the Aadhaar law and said that private companies cannot be allowed to use data for authentication of their information even with the permission of customers.
Later, the Center amended the law by allowing consumers to voluntarily use Aadhaar as an identity card to open a bank account and obtain a mobile phone connection. The court issued a notice on the fresh PIL and linked it with a separate case pending for hearing.
