Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 5

Questioning the government’s claim that Aadhaar will enable authorities to check frauds in banks and financial institutions, the Supreme Court on Thursday said such scams happened because bank officials were hand-in-glove with fraudsters and Aadhaar can do little to stop it.“A bank fraud does not take place because of multiple identities. A loan is given by a banker and he knows who the borrower is. A fraud can take place if the banker is hand-in-glove with the customer… Aadhaar can do little to stop it,” a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra told Attorney General KK Venugopal after he said Aadhaar would prevent bank fraud.As the top law officer said Aadhaar would stop creation of benami accounts and help authorities to track illegal transactions, the Bench – which also included justices AK Sikri, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, agreed. “But, to stop bank frauds, the manger or official at that level needs to carry out due diligence before advancing loans,” said Justice Sikri.The courtroom burst into laughter after the AG said, “What the court wants to say is that Nirav Modis will continue to flourish despite Aadhaar.” As the AG’s arguments remained inconclusive, he would resume on April 10.The Bench wondered if asking the entire population to link their mobile phones with Aadhaar “just to catch a few terrorists” was the right thing. “What if authorities, through administrative orders, ask citizens to part with their DNA, semen and blood samples as part of their Aadhaar demographics?” asked the Bench.Justice Chandrachud questioned the government, saying it has assumed that all the services for which it was asking for Aadhaar amounted to legitimate state interest.“The core issue is that how far you can cast the net of Aadhaar asking citizens to give their biometric details for services that are not covered under Section 7 (deals with welfare schemes) of the Aadhaar law,” Justice Chandrachud said.