Aadhaar scheme supported by UPA and NDA governments, UIDAI tells Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Aadhaar scheme has the support of two successive governments and senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who had opposed it for a party in the Supreme Court, was part of the empowered group of ministers which had dealt with the 12-digit unique national identifier issue, the UIDAI counsel said on Wednesday. [caption id=“attachment_4331399” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. CNN News18[/caption] In a veiled attack on Sibal who was in the forefront of the move by opposition MPs to impeach the Chief Justice of India, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), said the Congress leader was part of the Empowered Group of Minister (EGoM) that had dealt with the Aadhaar scheme. He said now the same person, who was once advocating the Aadhaar scheme, was making a submission that data would be compromised with private players. “Mr Sibal argued that the government is collecting data and would give them to private players,” Dwivedi took a dig at Sibal while making his submission before a five judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra. “The (Aadhaar) policy had the support of two successive governments,” he told the bench which also comprised Justices AK Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan. “I will not say much,” Dwivedi said and indicated about the recent developments involving the top judiciary. Sibal, who had appeared for some petitioners opposed to the Aadhaar scheme, was not present in the courtroom. He recently said he would not be appearing before the CJI as he was a signatory to the impeachment notice. Earlier, Sibal had opposed the Aadhaar scheme and said “our identity cannot be confined to mere Aadhaar numbers, we are all much more…I am against this one-nation-one-identity move.” The apex court is hearing a clutch of petitions challenging Aadhaar and its enabling 2016 law.