Datar for firewalls on sharing Aadhaar info

Chennai: With the Supreme Court indicating that it may deliver its verdict on whether right to privacy constitutes a fundamental right under the Constitution, senior advocate Arvind P. Datar has stressed the need to draw firewalls or limitations where Aadhaar information could be shared.

“SC should recognise the fundamental right to privacy. If it doesn’t, (then) it will be very difficult to comprehend that in our country whose founding fathers have given fundamental rights,” Arvind said during an interaction after delivering the tenth Rajaji memorial lecture on ‘The controversial right to privacy.’ The lecture was held under the aegis of the Triplicane Cultural Academy and the Kasturi Srinivasan Library here on Saturday evening. He said, “What we are saying is: We have taken the Aadhaar, at least draw firewalls, draw limitations where information can be shared.”

At least the court could make it clear because when arguing the case, “We heard a case from Roorkee, the M. Tech thesis was not accepted because he did not have an Aadhaar card,” he said, highlighting the heights of insistence for Aadhar card, originally issued to help the poor avail the government subsidy. While UK, tried Aadhaar experiment but dropped, Germany has the most secure and comprehensive data protection laws, he claimed.