Modi Government has recently launched a beta version
of the digital locker facility. This may be an attempt on the part of
the Government to show its progress especially in the direction of
fulfilling Digital India dream. However, not everything is smooth and
legal in the digital locker project.
On a closer analysis, it becomes apparent that
digital locker relies upon illegal and unconstitutional technology
popularly known as Aadhaar. Till the time of writing of this article,
Aadhaar project is not supported by any legal framework and is
clearly violating the civil liberties and fundamental rights of
Indian masses.
According to Praveen
Dalal, managing partner of Perry4Law
Organisation (P4LO) and leading techno legal expert of
Asia, there is no doubt about the utility of Digital Locker project
as it can save tremendous time, energy and resources. Its users would
be spared from the troubles of showing again and again the
certificates and documents in question. Further, chances of
manipulation and forgery of such documents and certificates would
also be lowered.
However, the moment Digital Locker is made dependent
upon Aadhaar, it becomes a “Controversial and Unconstitutional”
Project. This is more so when Aadhaar is the sole criteria to avail
the service that is also in violation of the Supreme
Court’s directions (PDF), opines Dalal. In short,
Digital
Locker Is a Legal Project Based upon Illegal Technology named
Aadhaar, concludes Dalal.
As the matter is presently pending before the
Supreme Court of India, it would only be wise and constitutionally
required to declared Aadhaar
project unconstitutional. The truth is that Aadhaar
project in its present form has no welfare element but is purely an
e-surveillance
project that needs to be declared unconstitutional
immediately. Neither Aadhaar nor Unique Identification Authority of
India (UIDAI) has the legal status that can justify their existence
at the expense of scarce financial resources.
