NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to respond to allegations in a PIL that nearly three crore ration cards across states were cancelled because of non-seeding with Aadhaar and claimed that it was leading to starvation deaths in many states.
A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian was initially reluctant to entertain the PIL but later issued notice to the Centre when senior advocate Colin Gonsalves said lack of internet services led to non-seeding of ration cards with Aadhaar details in tribal and remote areas, which resulted in cancellation of ration cards, depriving the poor of their foodgrain quota under the public distribution system.
Appearing for the Centre, additional solicitor general Aman Lekhi said the Centre was implementing the SC judgment in K Puttaswamy case on Aadhaar validity, which had directed the government that non-verification of ration cards with Aadhaar details would not lead to denial of ration to poor. He said the petitioner made a wrong statement before the court that ration cards were cancelled because of non-seeding of ration cards with Aadhaar details.
The bench said it was issuing notice on the petition only because of the allegations that ration cards were cancelled because of non-seeding with Aadhaar. “If true, this is a serious issue,” the bench said.
The petitioner said, “Insistence on Aadhaar and biometric authentication has led to cancellation of nearly three crore ration cards in the country according to the Union of India. The Union of India casually gives an explanation that these cancelled cards were bogus.
The real reason is that the technological system based on iris identification, thumb prints, possession of Aadhaar, functioning of the internet in rural and remote areas etc led to largescale cancellation of ration cards without notice to the family concerned.”
Terming the cancellation of ration cards of the poor as a cruel step, the petitioner said this has deprived millions of Indians living below the poverty line of food and led to starvation deaths in Jharkhand, UP, Odisha, Karnataka, MP, Maharashtra, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and other states.