Following the Supreme Court’s verdict in September, the government is making certain changes in the Aadhaar Act, including striking down of Section 33 (2).

Section 33(2) of the Aadhaar Act allowed identity and authentication data to be disclosed in the interest of national security on direction of an officer not below the rank of Joint Secretary (JS) to the government. The Supreme Court in its verdict directed striking down the Section terming it was unconstitutional.

“The Cabinet note has been prepared to strike down Section 33 (2) from the Aadhaar Act as per Supreme Court observation and soon the government will give the similar power to an adjudicating officer, whose role will be defined accordingly,” a senior government official said.

In fact, a thinking within the Law Ministry is emerging that officer below the rank of a Joint Secretary in Government of India can have the power do so, sources told BusinessLine .

A senior official at Ministry of Law & Justice said, the Cabinet will be approached soon.

The judgment of Justice AK Sikri in the Aadhaar case on September 26, had struck down Sections 33(2) of the Aadhaar Act 2016. The apex court also pointed out that every direction issued under this sub-section should be reviewed by an Oversight Committee consisting of the Cabinet Secretary and the Secretaries to the Government of India in the Department of Legal Affairs and the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, before it takes effect.

Apart from this, the government is making other changes to the Aadhaar Act too as reported by BusinessLine on Wednesday.

For instance, to have a provision that will say a child after attaining maturity (18 years), will have the power of withdrawing his/ her 12-digit unique number. This will mean that Aadhaar provider UIDAI has to delete all the data including the biometrics of the person once he/ she withdraws his name from the scheme.

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