Aadhaar data inflated, says counsel Shyam Divan
He said the Centre has attempted to inflate the figure to argue an impossibility of exclusion as the figures amount to puffery.
New Delhi: Even as senior counsel Shyam Divan maintained in the Supreme Court that the Centre has attempted to inflate the figures on savings due to ceding of Aadhar for availing social security benefits, heated exchanges sparked up the debate on Thursday. A five judge Constitution bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.K. Sikri, A.M. Kanwilkar, D.Y.Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan is hearing arguments in the Aadhaar case for the seven day.
During the last hearing on Tuesday, Justice Chandrachud quoted the report of World Bank lauding the Aadhar programme as it had resulted in savings and elimination of bogus claims of beneficiaries. Mr Divan disputed the figures of World Bank. He said the Centre has attempted to inflate the figure to argue an impossibility of exclusion as the figures amount to puffery. He refuted the Centre’s figures that '49,650 crore was saved in two years through transfer of benefits under Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme.