Indian court upholds legality of Aadhar

New Delhi : India’s top court yesterday upheld the legality of the government’s Aadhaar national ID scheme, the world’s largest biometric database, but imposed new restrictions on how the personal details of more than one billion citizens can be used. In its ruling the Supreme Court upheld the legality of the scheme, saying the benefits far outweighed any risks.

The judges ruled that anybody drawing on government services would by law require an Aadhaar number. But the bench said corporations could not force customers to hand over their Aadhaar data -- a key complaint from privacy advocates who say the programme had gone too far. Indians will no longer be compelled to provide their unique ID for services like mobile phone numbers or bank accounts, something critics said gave cos undue access to private data.