Crucial Supreme Court verdict on constitutional validity of Aadhaar today

After a marathon hearing for over four months, the Supreme Court will deliver a crucial verdict on the constitutional validity of Aadhaar - the national identity card - on Wednesday. In May 2018, a bench, headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra had reserved its verdict on a batch of pleas challenging the Constitutional validity of the 2016 Aadhaar Act.

The 12-digit Unique Identification Number was made compulsory for a host of services including bank accounts, PAN cards, cellphone services, and passport and even driving licenses.

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The government had made Aadhaar number 12-digit biometric number compulsory to avail several services, including bank accounts, PAN cards, cellphone services, passport and driving license.

The move was criticised by several people, who also expressed security concerns, citing a number of data breach concerns. The petitioners contended that the Aadhaar card, which stores biometric details of an individual, including fingerprints and iris scans, was a threat to privacy.

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In March 2018, the Supreme Court, in an interim order, had extended the mandatory linking of bank accounts and mobile phones with Aadhaar card until the final judgment on the matter.