Public Interest Litigations (PIL) challenging mandatory linking of Aadhaar with various services, including bank accounts, are multiplying with every passing week. The latest PIL filed with the Supreme Court contends that the government of India has wilfully misinterpreted the SC's order in the Lokniti Foundation case by making Aadhaar-based eKYC mandatory for both prepaid and postpaid subscribers via Department of Telecom (DoT) circulars dated 16th August, 2016 and 23rd March, 2017. This was first reported by Bar&Bench. The Government of India is wilfully misinterpreting the order of this Hon’ble court and asserting that this Hon’ble court directed them to make Aadhaar mandatory for obtaining a new mobile connection, and for re-verifying existing prepaid and postpaid subscribers... All that, this court directed was that in the interest of national security a proper verification of mobile subscribers should be carried out. The petition also asks the SC to provide "a direction to the Telecom Service Providers’ to stop advertisements as well as SMS and misinforming the citizens of India about the actual import of the said order." Besides the government, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Idea Cellular and Reliance Jio Infocomm have also been made Respondents to this petition. To begin with the petition argues that as per the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 there is no provision that allows linking of an individual's Aadhaar biometric details with his/her mobile number to be made mandatory: "[The Aadhaar] Act was passed…
