Thread by @SFLCin

Today, the Government introduced the Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2018 in Lok Sabha, which proposes to amend the Aadhaar Act, The Telegraph Act and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. A copy of the Bill, can be accessed here - sflc.in/aadhaar-and-ot… #Aadhaar

The Bill seeks to bring amendments to the Telegraph Act and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act to enable voluntary seeding of Aadhaar details with phone connections and bank accounts. #Aadhaar

The Supreme Court in its Aadhaar judgment had struck down that part of Sec. 57 of the Aadhaar Act which enabled private entities to use authentication services calling it unconstitutional. The court held that this enabled commercial exploitation of biometric and demographic data.

J. DY Chandrachud in his dissenting opinion held that - 'The conflation of biometric information with SIM cards poses grave threats to individual privacy, liberty and autonomy', calling the linking of Aadhaar numbers with mobile SIM cards as unconstitutional. #Aadhaar

The Govt. has introduced the Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2018, without any public consultation with relevant stakeholders. This is in contravention of the Govt's own 'Pre-Legislative Consultation Policy'. #Aadhaar

The Minister of Law and IT, stated that the amendment is in line and has been brought about to comply with the Supreme Court's Aadhaar judgment and does not infringe privacy. He also said that the govt. will soon introduce the data protection bill in Lok Sabha. #Aadhaar

MPs such as @ShashiTharoor (INC), Saugata Roy (TMC) and NK Premachandran (RSP) raised objections to the Bill, saying that the Bill violates the Supreme Court's decision in the Aadhaar judgment. Mr. Tharoor also pointed to the absence of a data protection law in India. #Aadhaar

We have been observing numerous violations of the Supreme Court's Aadhaar judgment. Various institutions such as - colleges, banks, e-payment wallets, EPFO and NITI Aayog have still been mandating Aadhaar linkage, kindly refer to - sflc.in/someone-still-…. #Aadhaar

As a number of these violations are not reported by the media, we have been curating a list of such illegal actions on our website (sflc.in/someone-still-…). We have also been helping affected parties draft letters that can be sent to violating entities.

In case you're an affected party and feel that your privacy rights are being violated due to mandatory linkage of Aadhaar for a situation held illegal by the Supreme Court, you may write to us at mail[at]sflc.in. #Aadhaar

For a summary of the Aadhaar judgment, you may visit our website, here - sflc.in/key-highlights…. #Aadhaar