HC seeks Centre, UGC's response to plea against enrolment in ABC with DigiLocker through Aadhaar

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked the Centre and UGC for their stand on a plea claiming that a student cannot enrol in the Academics Bank of Credits without a DigiLocker account that requires a valid Aadhaar ID. A bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet P S Arora granted time to the counsel for the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and University Grants Commission to take instructions from the authorities in the matter and apprise the court.

The bench listed the plea for further hearing on March 21. The petition by a Delhi University law student stated he was aggrieved by a February 21, 2023, order of UGC and the University Grants Commission (Establishment and Operation of Academic Bank Of Credits in Higher Education) Regulations, 2021, as enrolment in this programme is to be done only through www.abc.gov.in and the account creation in this is only available through digilocker.meripehchaan.gov.in.

Petitioner Premvir Singh said, "Surreptitiously Aadhaar has been given а backdoor entry as an account on DigiLocker cannot be created without а valid Aadhaar ID. No option has been provided to а student for enrolment with other identification documents like Voter ID, driving license et cetera without the use of DigiLocker".

Senior advocate Sunil Dalal, representing the petitioner, said insistence for Aadhaar can only be done where a person is getting some benefits or subsidiaries and UGC cannot make Aadhaar mandatory for this programme. He said without uploading Aadhaar details, the petitioner was not able to open a DigiLocker account.

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The petition, filed through advocates Shikha Sapra and Abhinav Jain, sought a direction to the ministry and Digital India Corporation to permit the opening of DigiLocker accounts by students with an option for enrolment with other identification proofs without Aadhaar.

It also sought a modification in the UGC's order to a similar effect. "This mandatory seeding of Aadhaar for creation of 'АВС ID' is а cause of grave concern directly impinging upon the petitioner's fundamental right to education which has been held to be an inherent and intrinsic part of 'Right То Life' as protected under Article 21 of the Constitution of India," the plea said.

It said the attempt by the authorities to seed Aadhaar data of students was specifically barred by the Supreme Court in the privacy judgement in which it was held that Aadhaar cannot be made mandatory for CBSE, NEET, ЈЕЕ and UGC. The Digilocker app can be used to store online scanned documents and certificates, including vehicle registration, driving license, PAN and Aadhaar, and also digitally verify them. It provides a storage space of up to 1 GB to each account holder.