Aadhaar not mandatory for NEET, JEE, other CBSE exams, rules SC

NEW DELHI, MARCH 7: The Supreme Court of India has informed the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) that it cannot ask candidates to compulsorily submit their Aadhaar number when applying for NEET, JEE, NET and other national level entrance examinations conducted by it.

In an interim order passed on March 7, 2018, a five member Bench headed by the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra overturned the existing CBSE regulation on Aadhaar and directed the exam conducting body to carry this new information on its official website. The apex court was hearing cases related to the long-pending issue of Aadhaar linkage with various schemes when it passed its order related to the All India entrance examinations conducted by the CBSE.

CBSE not authorized to ask for Aadhaar number

Earlier in the day, the Centre and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) had submitted before the Bench that the CBSE had never been provided with any authorization to demand for Aadhaar number or Aadhaar enrollment number from candidates applying for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), Joint Entrance Exam Main (JEE Main) and any other exam conducted by it. As per Attorney-General KK Venugopal, all candidates had the liberty to apply for these exams with the help of other valid Government identity documents like Passports, Voter IDs, Bank Account Pass Books and Ration Cards. The CBSE had only exempted candidates from Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and Meghalaya to apply for these exams with the use of non-Aadhaar documents until now.

The March 7 Supreme Court order may come as a positive for various medical, engineering and higher education aspirants who intend to apply for CBSE-conducted exams in the future. But with only two days left for the NEET application process to close on March 9, it has left scores of medical aspirants bemused given the lengths to which they saw the CBSE go in forcing the submission of Aadhaar number upon them.

How Aadhaar was compulsory in NEET 2018

Despite what the Centre may have asserted before the Court, the CBSE repeatedly issued various notices declaring Aadhaar as a compulsory requirement for all candidates throughout the NEET 2018 application process. Infact, from this year onwards, medical aspirants could not even proceed with filling any sections of the NEET 2018 application form without first providing their Aadhaar number or Aadhaar enrollment number. Along with the release of the NEET Prospectus on February 8, 2018, the CBSE had issued a separate notice on Aadhaar in which it clearly stated that “Aadhaar obviates the need for producing multiple documents to prove one’s identity” and hence, would “result in accuracy of the applicants’ details”. The Board even went on to cite Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act 2016 which apparently “permits the use of Aadhaar number for establishing the identity of an individual for any purpose pursuant to any law or any contract to this effect”. Therefore, “applicants not yet enrolled for Aadhaar are hereby required to make application for Aadhaar enrollment in case he/she is entitled to obtain Aadhaar as per Section 3 of the Aadhaar Act”, the Board clarified through the notice.

How the case reached the SC

The origins of the case lie in a Special Leave Petition filed by Abidali Yusufbhai Patel, a petitioner from Gujarat arguing against the Aadhaar requirement in JEE (Main) 2018 and NEET 2018. Patel had earlier filed a related Writ Petition (Public Interest Litigation) before the Gujarat High Court which had heard the case on February 27, 2018. The two member Bench comprising Gujarat Chief Justice R. Subhash Reddy and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi had noted that Aadhaar had been a compulsory requirement in NEET 2017 as well, while JEE (Main) 2018 had already been concluded. In his defense, the petitioner had cited a 2017 Supreme Court interim order on Aadhaar as per which “no candidate shall be deprived of any service for want of Aadhaar number in case he/she is otherwise eligible/entitled”. In the same ruling, the Supreme Court had even stated that “all the authorities are directed to modify their forms/circulars/likes so as to not compulsorily require the Aadhaar number...” Despite these arguments, the Gujarat High Court had refused to pass an order on the case, given that the Supreme Court was already scheduled to hear such Aadhaar related cases on March 6.

Legal precedents

As per the website of the Human Rights Law Network (HRLN), a prominent collective of lawyers and social activists working on non-profit legal aid and education, “there is no law of the country that mandates Aadhaar as a proof of identity for any purpose, except for benefits of PDS Scheme; LPG Distribution Scheme; Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employement Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS); National Social Assistance Programme (Old Age Pensions, Widow Pensions, Disability Pensions); Prime Minister's Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY); Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) and the Prime Minister's Jan Dhan Yojana”. The HRLN has even referenced an order issued by the Delhi High Court in September 2017 which allowed a candidate to appear for UGC-NET 2017 conducted by the CBSE. In that ruling, the Delhi High Court had disagreed with the CBSE’s assertion that Aadhaar could be used “pursuant to any law” and permitted the applicant to apply for NET with their passport, bank account pass book or any other valid identity proof.

Despite this comedy of errors and confusions on part of two Central Government bodies, the UIDAI and the CBSE, the Supreme Court interim order has atleast for now clearly established that Aadhaar can only be a voluntary requirement, not a compulsory one. The final ruling on the case is expected in the coming weeks when the Supreme Court will decide whether Aadhaar is really the privacy concern it is being made out to be and whether all citizens will be compulsory required to link it with their bank accounts and mobile numbers.