You can get an Aadhaar card even if you are not a citizen of India, UIDAI informed the High Court.

Aadhaar Card update: You can get an Aadhaar card even if you are not a citizen of India, UIDAI informed the High Court.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) informed the Kolkata High Court that Aadhaar card is not related to citizenship, non-citizens who enter the country legally can also be given Aadhaar card. This was said before a division bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya when they were hearing the petition of 'Joint Forum Against NRC'.

Challenge to Aadhaar card rules.

A petition was filed in the Kolkata High Court which challenges the sudden deactivation and reactivation of many Aadhaar cards in West Bengal, in this petition the petitioners challenged the constitutional validity of 28A and 29 in the Aadhaar card rules. Under this rule, the authority was given unlimited power to decide who is a foreigner and can deactivate his Aadhaar card.

Argument of the petitioner's lawyer. The lawyers of the petitioner argued that "Aadhaar is a huge structure, without Aadhaar one cannot be born - because it is necessary for birth certificate and without Aadhaar one cannot die as our life is connected within the matrix of Aadhaar." On the other hand, UIDAI's senior lawyer Lakshmi Gupta questioned the petition of the petitioners by calling them 'unregistered organizations' and said that such a petition cannot be accepted.

More benefits of Aadhaar card.

Regarding the matter of Aadhaar card, it was said that Aadhaar card has nothing to do with citizenship only, so it can also be given to those people who have been non-citizens for a certain period of time so that they can avail government subsidies and it is a basic document to avail government schemes.

Non-admissibility of the petition.

When this petition was filed, it was argued that this petition cannot be accepted because it is talking in favor of those who are non-citizens and the reality is that Bangladeshis are citizens. Solicitor General Ashok Kumar Chakravarty, on behalf of the Centre, said that the petition does not challenge Section 54 of the Aadhaar Act. Such rules have emerged from this section. He said that the petitioner's petition cannot challenge the sovereignty of the country.