Aadhar Bill Reintroduced in The Parliament

The first Aadhar act was introduced in 2016. It was a money bill passed by India’s Parliament. Its goal is to give the Aadhaar unique identification number project legal support. But, this wasn’t enough for the public welfare. So, a few amendments were required to be made to it. It was reintroduced in the Parliament as The Aadhar and Other laws (amendment) bill 2019. It was extremely difficult to get Amendments to be made legal as many ministers. This article will look at all these events in detail and how the amendments were made, and why they were required. 

Aadhar Act was first introduced in the Parliament: 

The Aadhaar Act of 2016 is a money bill passed by India’s Parliament. It was published on March 3,2016. It was an act to allow for the effective, transparent and targeted distribution of subsidies, benefits, and services from the Consolidated Fund of India as part of good governance. Its main goal was to give the Aadhaar unique identification number project legal support. The Aadhaar programme was created to provide every Indian citizen with a unique identity. The card will be sufficient to confirm identification, address, and date of birth on its own. Because each person will have only one unique number, it was believed to aid in the reduction of corruption. The majority of the provisions of the Bill were taken from the previous National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010, which was enacted in 2010. The main change is that the old bill’s three-member Identity Review Committee has been eliminated in the new measure. In addition, the Aadhaar Act’s section 8 differs significantly from the NIAI bill of 2010. While the NIAI law confined authentication to a biometric match with a Yes/No option, the Aadhaar Act permits the requesting agency/person to request further information about the person’s identification.

Aadhar and Other Laws amendment act 2019: 

The first Aadhar act wasn’t enough for citizen welfare as duplication, terrorism and stealing identities were still occuring. So, an Act amending the Aadhaar, Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits, and Services Act, as well as the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, and the Prevention of Money-laundering Act 2002, was passed. The Aadhar and Other laws Amendment bill was introduced on June 24, 2019. It was introduced in Lok Sabha by the Minister of Electronics and Information, Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad. It also amended these laws other than the Aadhar act; it was called the Aadhar and Other laws Amendment bill. On June 24, 2019, Parliament enacted an amended law allowing people to use Aadhaar as proof of identity when opening bank accounts and obtaining cellular phone service. This Bill, also included a severe penalty of one crore and a jail term for commercial businesses who violate Aadhaar data regulations, was already passed by the Lok Sabha on July 4. 

The Opposition to amendment bill 2019: 

However, getting the amendments to be made in the Aadhaar act wasn’t easy as a lot of ministers were against it. The opposite raised concerns about privacy and the absence of proper legal safeguards. The Aadhar Act, which is intended to replace a March ordinance, aims to enforce stringent penalties for standards violations. N.K. Premachandran,  the Revolutionary Socialist Party leader, opposes the Bill on three grounds: it contradicts a previous Supreme Court decision, allows commercial agencies to store data, and infringes on fundamental rights. Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad (who introduced the Aadhar Amendment act) did answer Mr Premchandran that this does not violate privacy and also can take the sim cards taken or without the Aadhar card. Also, Private businesses that store Aadhaar data face a fine of Rs 1 crore and a jail sentence under the modified Bill. People can choose between the two methods for confirming their identity. Supriya Sule, a member of Parliament from the Nationalist Congress Party, described the Economic Survey’s recommendation to allow private businesses access to select government databases for a fee as “shocking” and questioned why the government had not yet submitted the Data Protection Bill. Several opposition politicians questioned the government about Aadhaar’s benefits to the private sector,  the change being rushed through before the data protection legislation, which would  impact Aadhaar Act sections.

Conclusion: 

Every citizen of India is given an Aadhaar number, a unique identification number. It’s a centralised number that’s unique to each person. The first Aadhar act was passed in 2016, but it wasn’t enough, so it was required to make a few amendments. However, it wasn’t easy to make those Amendments as they were supported but opposed. But at last, the amendments were made and implemented. These Amendments allowed the people to use Aadhaar as proof of identity when opening bank accounts and obtaining cellular phone service. The Aadhar and Other laws Amendment bill was introduced on June 24, 2019.