BIOMETRIC SOVEREIGNTY AND CONSTITUTIONAL BORDERS: THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY AND THE AADHAAR SCHEME IN INDIA
AUTHOR – GOPESH* & DR. UJJWAL KUMAR SINGH**
* LAW COLLEGE DEHRADUN, UTTARANCHAL UNIVERSITY, DEHRADUN, UTTARAKHAND, INDIA
** PROFESSOR, LAW COLLEGE DEHRADUN, UTTARANCHAL UNIVERSITY, DEHRADUN, UTTARAKHAND, INDIA
BEST CITATION – GOPESH & DR. UJJWAL KUMAR SINGH,BIOMETRIC SOVEREIGNTY AND CONSTITUTIONAL BORDERS: THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY AND THE AADHAAR SCHEME IN INDIA, INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 6 (9) OF 2026, PG. 189-196, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344.
Abstract
In this chapter, the author discusses the constitutional conflict between the Aadhaar scheme in India, the largest biometric identification programme in the world that has registered more than 1.3 billion residents of the country, and the right to privacy as unanimously enshrined by a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India, (2017) 10 SCC 1. The chapter uses a doctrinal-analytical approach to trace the constitutional history of informational privacy since the early controversial decisions of M.P. Sharma v. Satish Chandra, (1954) SCR 1077 and Kharak Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh, AIR 1963 SC 1295, up to the Puttaswamy trilogy and the later statutory developments. This analysis questions the three-fold test of Puttaswamy proportionality – including legality, legitimate aim, and proportionality – against the structural design of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016, the struck-down Section 57, the disputed classification of money bill, and the progressive expansion of the scheme beyond its original welfare purpose. The chapter also evaluates the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 as a legislative effort to address the post-Puttaswamy constitutional imperative in India, with key weaknesses in the sensitive data classification, its broad national security exception and the institutional independence of the proposed Data Protection Board. The EU experience under the General Data Protection Regulation and European Court of Human Rights jurisprudence help highlight the disconnect between the constitutional aspirations of India and its current regulatory situation. The chapter ends by making specific legislative reform and independent institutional design recommendations to make sure that Aadhaar is not working outside the constitutional permissible limits.
Keywords: Right to Privacy; Aadhaar; Biometric Data; Informational Privacy; Puttaswamy; DPDP Act 2023; Proportionality; Surveillance State