Aadhar Project Of India Is Unconstitutional Says Praveen Dalal

Aadhar project of India or unique identification project of India (UID project of India) is a project that is a classic example of lack of management and planning. Aadhar project has been launched despite numerous shortcomings and deficiencies and as a futile project. Techno legal experts of India have been warning against the continuance of Aadhar project and have suggested that it should be scrapped.

The futility of Aadhar project and UIDAI was very apparent from the very beginning but Indian government and unique identification authority of India (UIDAI) kept on wasting crores of public money without any benefit. Finally, Aadhar project of India may be scrapped.

According to experts like Praveen Dalal, managing partner of techno legal ICT law firm Perry4Law and a Supreme Court lawyer, there is no second opinion about the fact that Aadhar Project and UIDAI are “Unconstitutional” in the absence of a “Constitutionally Sound Law” in this regard. This is more so when there are no dedicated Privacy Laws in India and Data Protection Laws in India, opines Praveen Dalal.

Even after the National Identification Authority of India Bill 2010 (NIDAI Bill 2010) would have become an applicable law, both Aadhar and UIDAI would have remained “Unconstitutional”. This is so because the “Constitutional Safeguards” that are required to make Aadhar/UIDAI Constitutional were still missing from the proposed Bill.

In fact, a parliamentary committee has rejected the NIDAI Bill 2010, inflicting a severe blow to UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani and raising doubts about Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's pet project. This decision of parliamentary committee seems to be an acceptance of suggestions of experts like Praveen Dalal.

The parliamentary committee has recommended that the government should review or reconsider the project by a bringing in a fresh Bill. The committee has said that the Bill and the project are not acceptable in the present form.

Privacy laws in India and privacy rights in India have always been ignored. We have no national privacy policy in India as well. Data protection laws in India are missing and so are data privacy laws in India. Privacy, data protection and India seem to be separable and unrelated concepts.

Indian government launched projects like Aadhar, National Intelligence Grid (Natgrid), Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS), National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), Central Monitoring System (CMS), Centre for Communication Security Research and Monitoring (CCSRM), etc. None of them are governed by any Legal Framework and none of them are under parliamentary scrutiny. It must be appreciated that intelligence gathering is not above privacy rights in India.

In reality, Aadhar project and UIDAI are booty sharing mechanisms meant for few companies. Praveen Dalal has been constantly suggesting that Aadhar project must be supported by a Techno Legal Framework that must be supplemented by robust Cyber Security, Privacy Protection and Data Protection.

Indian government, Aadhar project and UIDAI are hiding truth from Indian citizens and are fooling them. However, sooner or later the truth was bound to be revealed. Besides experts in India now even the home ministry of India has been opposing the Aadhar project and UIDAI.

Aadhar project is the most evil project of India that aims at strengthening illegal and unconstitutional privacy violation and e-surveillance in India. Internet censorship in India has already increased multifold. Censorship of Internet in India is a hint towards the growing hunger for e-surveillance by Indian government.

The truth of Aadhar project and UIDAI is too frightening to elaborate. Aadhar project and UIDAI have evil intentions that are executed under the façade of welfare and social good. Both Indian government and UIDAI are fooling Indians by using the façade of benefits and welfare. Aadhar project and UIDAI are big troubles. Still the PMO is supporting the unconstitutional Aadhar project and UIDAI.

Aadhar project and UIDAI are big brother project. Nandan Nilekani is wrong regarding Aadhar project. It is high time that Aadhar project of India and UIDAI must be scrapped. There is no sense in wasting any more time and money on a project like Aadhar that has no legal and constitutional basis to continue.

Aadhar Project Of India May Be Scrapped

Aadhar project of India or unique identification project of India (UID project of India) is one of the projects that have been imposed upon India and Indian citizens by Indian government. From the very beginning the futility of Aadhar project of India and UIDAI was apparent. However, Indian government kept on wasting crores of hard earned public money for the sake of commercial benefits of few Indian and foreign companies. In reality, Aadhar project and UIDAI are booty sharing mechanisms meant for few companies.

Techno legal expert and Supreme Court lawyer Praveen Dalal who is managing partner of techno legal ICT law firm Perry4Law has been constantly suggesting that Aadhar Project must be supported by a Techno Legal Framework that must be supplemented by robust Cyber Security, Privacy Protection and Data Protection.

In the absence of these Procedural and Constitutional Safeguards, both Aadhar Project and UIDAI are Unconstitutional, says Praveen Dalal. So much so that even after the passing of the National Identification Authority of India Bill 2010 (NIDAI Bill 2010), both Aadhar Project and UIDAI would “Remain Unconstitutional”, opines Praveen Dalal. We need an altogether different law than NIDAI Bill 2010 suggests Praveen Dalal.

Indian government, Aadhar project and UIDAI are hiding truth from Indian citizens and are fooling them. However, sooner or later the truth was bound to be revealed. Besides experts in India now even the home ministry of India has been opposing the Aadhar project and UIDAI.

Aadhar project is the most evil project of India that aims at strengthening illegal and unconstitutional privacy violation and e-surveillance in India. Internet censorship in India has already increased multifold. Censorship of Internet in India is a hint towards the growing hunger for e-surveillance by Indian government.

The truth of Aadhar project and UIDAI is too frightening to elaborate. Aadhar project and UIDAI have evil intentions that are executed under the façade of welfare and social good. Both Indian government and UIDAI are fooling Indians by using the façade of benefits and welfare. Aadhar project and UIDAI are big troubles. Still the PMO is supporting the unconstitutional Aadhar project and UIDAI.

Aadhar project and UIDAI are big brother project. Nandan Nilekani is wrong regarding Aadhar project. It is high time that Aadhar project of India and UIDAI must be scrapped. Sensing the gravity of the situation a parliamentary committee is set to reject the NIDAI Bill 2010, inflicting a severe blow to UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani and raising doubts about Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's pet project. This decision of parliamentary committee seems to be an agreement with the suggestions of experts like Praveen Dalal.

Parliament's standing committee on finance, headed by Yashwant Sinha of the BJP, held deliberations on the controversial NIDAI Bill 2010 for a year. It considered the suggestions and recommendations of various experts in this regard. The committee's draft report giving the thumbs down to the NIDAI Bill 2010 is ready.

Sources in the panel indicated that the decision to recommend that the government should withdraw the present NIDAI Bill 2010 and bring a new one was taken "unanimously". Even Congress members found the project "directionless". It is learnt that the draft report has recommended that the government should review or reconsider the project by a bringing in a fresh Bill. The committee has said that the Bill and the project are not acceptable in the present form. The PMO must seriously think about continuation of Aadhar project now.

Google Outcry Lack of Proper Internet Intermediary Law In India

Internet intermediaries in India have started showing their dissatisfaction towards the draconian policies and rules of Indian government pertaining to Internet and its use. E-surveillance in India and surveillance of Internet traffic in India have increased to a considerable limit that now requires judicial scrutiny. Censorship of Internet in India should be challenged as soon as possible in the larger interests of Indian Internet users.

Intermediaries liability for cyber law due diligence in India has been extended to such levels that Internet intermediaries are now finding it difficult to comply. Internet censorship in India has become a big nuisance for these Internet intermediaries. Naturally these Internet intermediaries cannot remain silent anymore.

In fact, Yahoo has filed a petition raising the questions regarding the right to privacy of a company that stores sensitive data of its customers and users and to what extent authorities can coerce it to part with the information considered necessary to either track terror perpetrators or thwart future attacks.

Now Internet intermediaries in India have been asked to pre screen contents before they are posted on their websites. India wants companies like Google and Facebook to censor users’ contents before they are posted. Naturally this is an unreasonable and impractical demand that Internet intermediaries cannot fulfill.

Google has reacted to this dictate by responding that they follow the law regarding removal of illegal contents. It has also clarified it stand that when content is legal but controversial it do not remove it because people's differing views should be respected, so long as they are legal. Further, even where content is legal but breaks Google’s own terms and conditions, it is removed once Google is notified about the same.

Internet intermediaries are now complaining that India has no clear guidelines about what constitutes offensive and hateful contents. Sources from Indian government claims that the officials had got instructions to draw up the guidelines in this regard soon. Indian government is working upon the guidelines that may take three/four months to formulate. Let us hope that Indian government would formulate suitable and sensible guidelines in this regard.

Censorship Of Internet In India

Internet censorship in India has crossed all the limits. Firstly, we have a bizarre cyber law of India that provides for Internet censorship without any procedural safeguards. Secondly, India has formulated rules that have prescribed stringent Internet intermediary liability in India. Thirdly, there are no dedicated data protection and privacy rights in India.

All these loopholes are allowing Indian government and its agencies to ask for data, information and records from Internet intermediaries of India. Surprisingly, no court order is required to ask for such sensitive and personal information from Internet intermediaries in dominant majority of cases.

Intermediaries liability for cyber law due diligence in India has become very stringent after the information technology amendment act 2008 has been notified. Information technology act 2000 (IT Act 2000) now carries many e-surveillance, websites blocking and Internet censorship provisions.

Surveillance of Internet traffic in India has become a nuisance for internet intermediaries of India. In fact, Internet intermediaries like Yahoo has already dragged Indian government to court to resist illegal and unconstitutional e-surveillance demands of Indian government.

In its petition, Yahoo has raised questions on the right to privacy of a company that stores such sensitive data and to what extent authorities can coerce it to part with the information considered necessary to either track terror perpetrators or thwart future attacks.

It is high time for constitutional courts of India to take notice of these unconstitutional developments and stop the initiatives of Indian government and its agencies before it is too late.