What’s up: On July 25, the Supreme Court declined to hear Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala’s PIL challenging the constitutionality of Sections 4 and 5 of the Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021. These sections allowed for the linking of a citizen’s Aadhaar number with their Voter ID to authenticate the entry into electoral rolls. Considering the linking process will begin from August 1, it is worth going over the petition filed by Surjewala. As such, here is a detailed look at Surjewala’s Public Interest Litigation (PIL) as reviewed by Medianama. Why it matters: The linking of Aadhaar with voter IDs, as per the new law, will begin from August 1. However, Opposition parties and civil society alike severely criticised the amendments for their potentially significant infringements on privacy. Surjewala is among those who are wary of such proposals to link Aadhaar to public data records especially when there is there is no national data protection law. His petition will now have to be brought before a High Court. Law infringes fundamental rights: As per Surjewala’s petition, the linking of Aadhaar with Voter ID as per Sections 4 and 5 of the 2021 Act infringes upon the fundamental Right to Privacy. The Supreme Court in its judgement on the K.S Puttaswamy v. Union of India case held that the right to keep the private data confidential even from statutory bodies, except in certain circumstances, is a fundamental right. Further, he argued that the move violates Article 14 (Right to Equality) of the Constitution and “suffers from…
