Aadhaar bill : What does it Seek

Direct Benefits transfer 

Aadhaar Bill

Name of the Bill-- ‘The Aadhaar (Target Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016’.

Status: Money Bill

Background: Budget 2017 contained the announcement that use of the biometric identity card, Aadhar, will be provided statutory backing. Following this announcement, the government also introduced the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill as a money bill in the Lok Sabha.

-- A Bill to provide Aadhaar statutory backing for use for transferring government subsidies and benefits has been introduced in Lok Sabha.

-- The Bill is NOT a Proof of Citizenship, and incorporates clauses to keep personal information discreet

-- The Bill thus mandates the use of UIDAI in government schems and rules, to provide good governance, efficient, transparent, and targeted delivery of subsidies, benefits and services

-- The Bill seeks to make the use of Aadhaar mandatory for availing of government subsidies but at the same time tries to address concerns regarding privacy and protection of personal information.

-- Expenditure on the Bill will be incurred from the Consolidated Fund of India and thus to individuals residing in India through assigning of unique identity numbers to such individuals.

-Salient features of the Bill

1.          Mandates Aadhaar--Statutory backing to the processes of enrolment, authentication and use of data for delivery of various benefits, subsidies and services by the government.

---To make use of Aadhaar mandatory for availing of government subsidies and benefits

--- Aims to ensure good governance, efficient, transparent, and targeted delivery of government schemes to the people

2.       Made essential for Social Security benefits

3.       Protection of data--Addresses the concerns regarding privacy and protection of personal information.

4.       Privacy of the individual – Upholder – Data access is restricted to higher officials – Data sharing made according to rules. Only official of the ranks of Joint secretary has the power to disclose the information

5.       Funding--Expenditure on the Bill will be incurred from the Consolidated Fund of India and thus to individuals residing in India through assigning of unique identity numbers to such individuals.

6.       The Bill is NOT a Proof of Citizenship, and incorporates clauses to keep personal information discreet

7.       Responsibility—Onnus to the UIDAI to check and protect the personal data

8.       An oversight committee consisting of the cabinet secretary and others will overview the decision of the information disclosure.

9.       Penalty--provides for penalties for impersonation, unauthorized access and tampering of data in the Central Identities data repository that stores all such information

---Significance of Aadhaar number in service delivery and e Governance

• 1.       Important component of JAM trinity – Service delivery, subsidies made possible efficiently – Direct benefit transfer for Kerosene (Checks air pollution), PDS, Scholarships, Subsidies — Diversion, Coercive corruption due to citizen- Official interface could be curtailed
• 2.       Financial inclusion, Easy procedure to open banks accounts, KYC, Useful for migrant laborers,
• 3.       MGNREGA wage transfer to bank accounts, IGOAPS, pension scheme and other social security scheme transfer to beneficiary bank accounts etc
• 4.       DBT, Adhaar integration with bank account + Subsidies ———– Removes Ghost Beneficiaries, Coercive corruption
• 5.       Weeding out of Ghost voters —— Linking with Adhaar card
• 6.       E – Health – Centralized documentation of patients records
• 7.       Digital locker – linked with Adhaar
• 8.       Passport in 10 days – Easy service delivery – Police verification done at a later date
• 9.       “Jeevan Praman for Pensioners”,– Removes procedure hurdles — Eliminate the need for the physical presence of pensioners at office
• 10    Use of multiple ID cards will be eliminated – Adhaar for all identification purposes – Removes ambiguity – Integration of work and services

Significance of the move to accord statutory status to Adhaar

• Legal foundation to Adhaar – Expansion of its uses for wider range of service delivery
•  Accountability – Legislative accountability for Executive actions
• Established hierarchy and Policy certainty – Proper grievance redressal mechanism
• Insurance against Change in government and their policies – Previous UPA govt, promoted…..But, opposed by NDA……….. But, now NDA is promoting ———- More certainty if there is statutory statu
•  Well established guidelines to channelize the procedures in preventing the misuse of Adhaar card for Personal, political gains and vested interests
•   Judicial interferences will be curtailed and certainty in implementation will be establishe
• Protection of privacy rights and establishment legalized channel to secure the private data

Concerns-

1. 1. The clauses that allow information to be shared under certain circumstances are not clear and need a closer look as it appears they can be abused.
2. 2. As in all such cases including phone tapping, the Bill says a court order will be required for sharing of information either in response to some police case or when national security demands it. This is where the potential problem comes in, more so since a district judge’s order is considered good enough.
3. 3. If data is sought on, say, whether a person used his Aadhaar biometrics at a particular location—‘authentication records’, in jargon—that may still be permissible, though with very strict checks.
4. 4. But a plain reading of Section 33(2) suggests that the information that can be revealed includes ‘identity information’ which, in the section on definitions, is said to include a person’s ‘Aadhaar number, his biometric information and his demographic information’.
5. 5. This is clearly a drafting lapse as this allows biometric information of people to be accessed by anyone, including intelligence agencies

Money Bill controversy

Considering it Money Bill is unnecessary and unfortunate because:

--As part of the money Bill,  need no approval of the Rajya Sabha, Bypasses the Rajya Sabha (Govt. is in Minority) to make way for passing the legislation in the loksabha

--- Defeat the very purpose of Parliament  =  Forum for deliberation of issues of national importance – Suppresses the voice of opposition – escape from legislative accountability (Rajya Sabha) – Undermine the role of Rajya sabha

--- Legislation without consensus (with opposition parties) may prove hurdle during the implementation of the scheme

--- May set a bad precedent for the future governments to push their agenda with least regard to opposition views (juvenile justice and workman injury compensation bills passed during 1980s as Money bills)

However, some arguments in favor of the bill passed as Money bill should also be considered:

-- Article 110 of the Constitution, defining the money bill, states that in addition to taxation matters, “the custody of the Consolidated Fund or the Contingency Fund of India, the payment of moneys into or the withdrawal of moneys from any such Fund” is also part of a money bill.

-- The opening paragraph of the Aadhaar bill states that the purpose of the bill is to “provide for efficient, transparent, and targeted delivery of subsidies, benefits and services, the expenditure for which is incurred from the Consolidated Fund of India”.

-- Besides, if any question arises whether this bill can qualify as a money bill, the decision lies with the speaker of the Lok Sabha, and is final. Therefore, the argument that the Aadhaar bill cannot be a money bill is invalid and government is right in this regard.