This is a record of the proceedings in the Supreme Court bench hearings on the Constitutional validity of Aadhaar, which began on Feb 13, 2018. You may read the previous days' proceedings here: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9, Day 10. Senior Advocate Gopal Subramanium resumed his arguments for the petitioners by saying the Aadhaar Act is unconstitutional. He said that the Puttaswamy judgment read with NALSA and Subramaniam Swamy (defamation case) judgments made it clear that the Article 21 of the Constitution included dignity within its sweep. A law which impairs dignity is per se unconstitutional. He asserted that it has been held that when it comes to individual rights versus state concerns, it is the former that has primacy. State action needs to be tested for substantive and procedural reasonableness and there cannot be a waiver of Fundamental Right. Mr. Subramanium said that Article 14 is not only about nondiscrimination. The Aadhaar Act has no legitimate aim. The legitimacy means that the aim is discernible and the means to achieve that aim is equally discernible. Mr. Subramanium said that the Aadhaar Act suffers from excessive delegation and hence violates Article 14 of the Indian Constitution. Mr. Subramanium argued that the Aadhaar Act cannot retrospectively validate abrogation of Fundamental Rights, because there cannot be a retrospective validation of actions which violate Fundamental Rights. The means employed in the statute, because biometrics itself is flawed and the algorithmic behavior is itself irrational and beyond UIDAI control. Theory of…
