NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Friday said the proposal of the Unique Identification Authority of India ( UIDAI ), which runs the Aadhaar scheme , to hire a social media agency to monitor such platforms was contrary to its earlier submissions.A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud also asked Attorney General K K Venugopal to assist it in the hearing of the plea on the issue filed by Mohua Moitra, an MLA of the Trinamool Congress. "Such action of the government violates her right of privacy. The scope of work of the Social Media Agency intended to be selected through the impugned request for proposal (RFP) is in the teeth of the judgment laid down by this Court in K S Puttaswamy case, wherein a bench of nine judges of this court recognised privacy as a fundamental right under the Constitution," the plea said.The petition claimed that the aim of employment of a "Social Listening Tool" by the social media agency of the UIDAI in accordance with the RFP on the pretext of raising awareness about Aadhaar is nothing but an attempt to "overreach the jurisdiction" of the apex court. "Despite the fact that the constitutional validity of various aspects of Aadhaar is under challenge before this Court in a batch of petitions and judgement has been reserved by a Constitution Bench of this Court in the matter, the Respondents (Centre, UIDAI) have issued the RFP to identify 'top detractors' and 'neutralise negative sentiments' in relation to Aadhaar. "The entire surveillance architecture is to be placed in the hands of private persons employed on a contract basis who will be on the rolls of the service provider who emerges successful in the tender process.

Source: Economic Times September 07, 2018 14:26 UTC