Five-judge Constitution bench of SC begin hearing of Aadhaar validity

A five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court today began hearing on a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the government's flagship Aadhaar programme and its enabling Act of 2016.

During the hearing, the bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra asked whether the government does not have the right to say that it was spending crores of rupees on welfare schemes and needed to verify whether benefits reached the needy and the leakages



or pilferages of resources stopped.

Senior lawyer Shyam Divan, appearing for petitioners, told the apex court that Aadhaar is a giant electronic mesh.The hearing will resume tomorrow.

A nine-judge constitution bench of the apex court had last year, held that Right to Privacy was a Fundamental Right under the Constitution. Several petitioners challenging the validity of Aadhaar had claimed it violated privacy rights.