Centre takes panel’s advice, tells UIDAI to draft new bill

The government has overruled the opinion of its top law officer that the Nandan Nilekani-led Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) should be able to “execute powers independently” of Parliament, and asked the authority to draft a new bill in consonance with the views of a parliamentary committee. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Jun 26, 2012, 22:53:59 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The government has overruled the opinion of its top law officer that the Nandan Nilekani-led Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) should be able to “execute powers independently” of Parliament, and asked the authority to draft a new bill in consonance with the views of a parliamentary committee.

There has been a lot of debate on the UIDAI’s authority to collect citizens’ biometric information for the issuance of a unique identity (Aadhaar) number without legislative backing, considering that issues such as security of data and privacy of individuals were involved.

Attorney general GE Vahanvati had told the government that there was nothing in the law against the UIDAI functioning as an executive authority. “The power of the executive is clear and there is no question of circumventing Parliament, or the executive becoming a substitute...” he had said.

A parliamentary standing committee, on the other hand, had observed that the UIDAI’s executive powers were “unethical” and “violative” of the Parliament’s prerogative, asking the government to bring a new bill before the Parliament to define the body’s powers, functions and responsibilities. It had also pointed out several deficiencies in the functioning of the authority.

Taking the panel’s views seriously, the government asked the UIDAI to draft a new bill. “The bill has been sent back to the drawing board,” a senior government official said, adding that the government wants clarity on its “objects and reasons”.

The UIDAI’s latest draft bill did not clarify why Aadhaar was required when the home ministry’s National Population Register (NPR) was mandated under the law to collect biometric details of citizens. The fact that the NPR had the legal mandate to collect biometric information was the main reason for the parliamentary standing committee opposing the UPA government’s development initiative – aimed at plugging government subsidies in welfare programmes.

Sources said the proposed bill had also failed to deal with issues related to security of data, privacy of individuals, and the purpose of the information.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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