Union Information and Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday said the Centre will conduct an inter-ministerial consultation to assess the impact of the Supreme Court’s judgement on the validity of Aadhaar, PTI reported. Prasad said appropriate action will be taken once each ministry conducts a study.
On Wednesday, the top court upheld the constitutional validity of Aadhaar and most of its provisions. The Supreme Court, however, struck down Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act which pertains to private entities using the unique identity number.
The minister described the top court’s order as historic and said the verdict would help promote financial administration cleanliness. “The government will take a comprehensive view as to what is doable and required to be done,” Prasad said. “Entire implications of the judgement will have to be examined by respective department.”
Prasad played down queries about the possibility of deleting Aadhaar information recorded with telecom companies and banks. The minister said there are adequate security measures to prevent the misuse of data collected by the private entities. “Any authentication that was done by private company it was done for specific purpose,” Prasad said. “They were required to maintain sanctity of that storage. Any misuse of that storage is punishable with 3 years imprisonment and Rs 10 lakh in fine.”
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