Right To Privacy (Under Article 21) – From The Perspective Of Aadhaar
- IJLLR Journal
- Mar 30, 2025
- 2 min read
Madhu Srikar Chintalapudi, BMS College of Law, Bengaluru
ABSTRACT
The fundamental rights ever since they were introduced have been interpreted and many new aspects have been included under its ambit. One such is that of privacy. A rather new terminology to the people of India but has gained immense importance in the recent past. It all started from an initiative which the government had taken in the form of Aadhaar, which attracted attention from all sects of people including the jurists in the form of breach of individual privacy which later became a sensational argument in the apex court of India.
Whilst we live in a world which continues to grow digitally, even the governments have started adopting measures which seem to make all our lives easier, as most tech-oriented stuff usually does. One such initiative was taken by the Government of India in 2011, where a new identity document called as Aadhaar card, for which an agency named “UIDAI” (Unique Identification Authority of India)1 was established to issue the cards. It creates a twelve-digit unique identity number which was intended by the government to be the primary identification number for all legal residents of the country. And to apply for the card, a resident must submit the scan of their fingerprints and retina.
Big Country. Huge Population. A unified card which could make the government’s job easier in planning and implementing of schemes across the nation. Sounds fair right? Well, it did sound fair to the citizens of the country until here. The government advertisements and awareness programs seemed to work as the benefits of having an Aadhaar were well spread across the nation. Some of the benefits mentioned were – Availing of subsidies, opening bank accounts, Acquisition of passport, Digital life certificate. Aadhaar became a new household name and people in large numbers went ahead to get their hands on this new unique identitycard.
