SC rejects pleas seeking review of Aadhaar verdict

The Supreme Court has dismissed a batch of pleas seeking review of its 2018 Aadhaar verdict.

The 2018 Verdict

• The verdict was given by five-judge Constitution bench headed by the then Chief Justice Dipak Misra.
• It upheld the Centre’s flagship Aadhaarscheme as constitutionally valid.
• However, it also struck down some of its provisions, including its linking with bank accounts, mobile phones and school admissions.
• Aadhaar is mandatory for filing of Income Tax Return and allotment of permanent account number (PAN).
• Aadhaar is also needed for availing facilities of welfare schemes and government subsidies.

What did the review petition argue?

• The present review petitions have been filed against the final judgment and order of SC.
• The petition challenged the correctness of the judgment on the ground that the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other subsidies, benefits and services) Act, 2016 was incorrectly certified as a Money Bill by the Speaker of Lok Sabha.
• Certification of the bill as a money bill enabled the government to get it cleared without getting the assent of a majority in the Rajya Sabha.

• Since the Constitution uses the term “only”, the argument was that a law which dealt with other aspects – like the Aadhaar Act – could never have been designated as a Money Bill in the first place, meaning the whole Act had to be struck down as unconstitutional.

SC’s current stand on the petition

• Four of the five judges on the bench passed the order rejecting the review petitions.
• Justice D Y Chandrachud, one of the five judges on the bench, dissented with the majority order rejecting pleas seeking review of the verdict.
• They argued that no grounds had been made out for a review of the original judgment.