Center is ordered by the Calcutta High Court to provide an affidavit on a PIL that claims Aadhaar cards were deactivated
On Thursday, the Calcutta High Court ordered the Center to submit an affidavit in response to a public interest lawsuit that claimed the relevant authorities had deactivated people’s Aadhaar cards.
The maintainability of the PIL was called into doubt by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Ashoke Chakrabarti, who pointed out that the plea did not mention any specific cases of individuals impacted by the deactivation.
Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam, chairing a division bench, ordered the Center to submit an affidavit outlining its stance on the PIL’s accusation that people’s Aadhaar cards were being deactivated arbitrarily through the use of Section 28A of the Aadhaar Act. The Center was given three weeks to submit this affidavit.
The bench, which also included Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya, instructed the petitioner to submit their affidavit within a week and said that the case would be heard again on April 25.
The ASG argued that only foreign nationals are covered by Section 28A of the Aadhaar Act.
According to him, these foreigners were entering India illegally and getting Aadhaar cards via cooperation with some government agencies, which posed a serious threat to national security for the country.
Jhuma Sen, the petitioner’s attorney, argued that Section 28A’s provisions for deactivating Aadhaar cards were arbitrary and beyond the scope of the Aadhaar Act. Joint Forum Against NRC is the organization that filed the PIL.
According to Section 28A of the Aadhaar Act, a foreign national’s Aadhaar number may be deactivated if their visa for a stay in India expires or if the authorities determine that they do not meet the requirements for entry into or stay in India in accordance with the Passport Act.
