The Supreme Court has sent a notice to the Center and the Aadhar card issuing body UIDAI under a public interest litigation. Along with this, the Supreme Court has also directed that the Aadhaar card of 27 lakh people should be issued at the earliest. These are the people who were added to the Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) list released in August 2019.
A bench of Justices UU Lalit, S Ravindra Bhat and PS Narasimha issued notices to the central government and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) during the petition filed by All India Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev. Under which a reply was also sought regarding non-issuance of Aadhar card of 27 lakh people in the state of Assam.
According to petitioner’s advocate Vishwajit Deb, the question was asked whether people whose names are included in the second NRC list would be denied Aadhaar card and the number of such people in the state of Assam is 27.43 lakh. The Advocate said that the Aadhar cards of those included in the first NRC list published in December 2017 have been issued while those in the second list have not been able to get the Aadhar cards.
It has been said in the petition that due to non-availability of Aadhar card, people have to be deprived of basic facilities. On the other hand, under the Aadhaar Act, every resident of India is entitled to an Aadhaar card. The bench agreed to issue notice and fix the matter for hearing in May.
According to Tulika Mukherjee, whose names were included in the final list, she tried to apply for an Aadhaar card, but her applications were rejected by the UIDAI. It has been said in the petition that non-issuance of Aadhaar card is a violation of the right to equality.