The Centre on Thursday rushed to the Supreme Court urging it to set up a larger Constitution Bench to decide on the pleas for expanding the use of Aadhaar card.
The pleas were made by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), along with various regulatory authorities like the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
A day after failing to convince a three-judge bench to pass an order on enlarging the use of Aadhaar, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi with senior advocates Harish Salve, Pinky Anand and Jayant Bhushan appeared before a CJI-led bench asking it to urgently constitute a proper bench to take up matters related to Aadhaar.
“We intend to bring delivery of social benefit schemes to the doorsteps of poor people but this is now being sought to be stalled by a few by raising right to privacy issues,” Rohatgi said.
What CJI said
“The question is: Do I have nine judges to spare? How do I spare nine judges? What happens to the other pending matters then? Will I be wasting my other judges by asking them to sit only for chamber hearing matters?,” Chief Justice H L Dattu asked.
Observing that the question whether right to privacy is a fundamental right or not was last dealt with by a bench comprising eight judges, Justice Dattu asked: “Once it is an eight-judge bench judgment, how can it go to a bench comprising lesser number of judges?”