This is a record of the proceedings in the Supreme Court bench hearings on the Constitutional validity of Aadhaar. You may read the previous days here: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 Senior Advocate Shyam Divan began Day 4 of the Aadhaar hearings with a dissection of Section 59 of the Aadhaar Act. This section validates all the actions undertaken by the UIDAI in the pre-legislation era between 2009 and 2016. However, as Mr. Divan pointed out, the Section applies solely to the actions undertaken by the Union Government through subsidiary entities - private registrars and enrolment agencies appointed by the UIDAI to collect citizen data and issue Aadhaars cannot be protected under Section 59. To Justice Sikri's interjection that the central government's appointment of UIDAI validated its actions, Mr. Divan argued that the notification establishing the UIDAI might protect the actions of the central government in entering into the MoU, but cannot and does not cover the actions of the registrars. To this, Justice Chandrachud countered that the actions of the registrars could also be traced back to the MoU. In response, Mr. Divan pointed out that the actions of the Registrars cannot be construed to be the actions of the central government and, further, the enrolment agencies are not covered even under the MoUs. Therefore, the enrolments prior to the Act are not validated by Section 59. He stated that there could not be a retrospective validation of a violation of fundamental rights, particularly when such a violation…
