Aadhaar judgement: Quotable quotes of judges

The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday passed a crucial verdict as it upheld the constitutionality of the Aadhaar scheme.

The historic verdict was pronounced by a constitutional bench of five- judges comprising -- Justices AK Sikri, AM Khawilkar, DY Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan -- led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.

Following are the quotable quotes the five judges.

It is better to be unique than the best.Best is number one, but unique means the only one: Justice A K Sikri

"Only minimum biometrics of iris and fingerprints are sought. The information is collected in silos. There is no merging of silos. Authentication is not on the Internet, nature of the transaction is not shared and registered devices are used," said justice Sikri while ruling out the scare that Aadhaar could lead to a surveillance state.

"There is nothing in the Aadhaar Act that violates right to privacy of an individual, " said Justice Sikri.

"There is no possibility of obtaining a duplicate Aadhaar card", he said, adding "there is sufficient defence mechanism for authentication in Aadhaar scheme."

"Mandating Aadhaar for benefits and services under Section 7 would lead to a situation in which citizens will not be able to live without Aadhaar," observed Justice Chandrachud.

"Aadhaar negates pluralistic identities and reduces a person to just 12 digits," Said Justice Chandrachud.

Justice Chandrachud says "UIDAI has no accountability/responsibility for storage or leakage of data."

Justice Bhushan says biometric data contains certain personal information of citizens and the breach, if any, has to be ascertained.

"Government and UIDAI are empowered to cure defects in Aadhaar scheme"