SC refuses to entertain plea seeking link of Aadhaar with social media

The Supreme Court on Monday, October 14, refused to entertain public interest litigation (PIL) seeking a direction to the Central government to link social media accounts with the Aadhar number to check the menace of fake and paid news. 

'Everything doesn't need to come to the Supreme Court'

A bench headed by Justice Deepak Gupta, however, has allowed the petitioner Ashwini Upadhyay to approach the concerned High court. According to reports, the top court said the Madras High Court was hearing a similar petition. "Everything doesn't need to come to the Supreme Court. The issue is before the Madras High Court, you go there," the court said. Similar petitions to link Aadhaar numbers to social media have also been filed in the Bombay and Madhya Pradesh High Courts.

PIL aimed at curbing fake and paid news

According to reports, the Petitioner wanted a direction to the Centre to deactivate duplicate and fake social media accounts in order to control fake and paid news. The PIL also wanted the government to link profiles on platforms such as Twitter and Facebook with Aadhar number.

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Tamil Nadu Govt suggests linking social media with Aadhaar

Earlier, the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) said the existing Aadhaar act does not support the linking of Aadhaar with social media accounts. The first suggestion to link the Aadhar with social media was made by the Tamil Nadu Government. The Tamil Nadu Government necessitated the linking of Aadhaar with social media to check on terrorist messages, fake news and pornography.

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SC agrees to hear PILs of Facebook and Whatsapp

The Supreme Court had earlier agreed to hear pleas of Facebook and Whatsapp seeking the transfer of four (PILs) on the linkage of Aadhaar. The bench, comprising justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose, issued notices to the central and the Tamil Nadu governments besides other entities such as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) after arguments that touched upon the merits and technical aspects of moving the cases to the top court. 

(With agency inputs)
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