Tis Hazari Court clarifies Aadhaar not mandatory for litigants

Moneylife Digital Team 31 May 2018

Public Interest

Litigants filing application in Delhi's Tis Hazari Court are not required to quote or submit their Aadhaar numbers, reveals an order passed by First Appellate Authority (FAA) under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

The order passed by Kovai Venugopal, Central FAA at District & Session Court (Tis Hazari Court) mentions about a software that has a field for Aadhaar, but it is not mandatory. "Dealing Assistant from Filing Section filed the written submission that with regard to query number 1, the Supreme Court has issued guidelines for filing any case, bail or miscellaneous applications at filing counters through a case information format, which runs through a software name 'Ubuntu' and in the aforesaid format some fields are mandatory and the same were marked as '*' and further submitted that the column no.4 in the abovesaid format is pertaining to Aadhaar, which is not shown as mandatory field of the abovesaid format," it states.

Delhi-based Mohan Bhadana had filed an application under RTI with the Public Information Officer of Tis Hazari Court seeking copy of the notification or directions making Aadhaar mandatory before Distict Courts in Delhi or the Delhi High Court.

Bhadana sought following information under RTI...

1. Is disclosing/furnishing the litigant's Aadhaar number mandatory for the purpose of filing before the District Courts in Delhi and/or Delhi High Court?

2. If the answer to the above question is in affirmative, has the High Court issued any directions for the said purpose? If so, kindly furnish a copy of the same in response to my application.

The PIO of Tis Hazari Court forwarded reply to Bhadana as received from the Judiciary Branch, which stated that no such information was available in their Branch.

The FAA, however, said that this was not a proper reply and the concerned officials from the filing branch should reply as to under what provisions they were asking for the Aadhaar details of the litigants at the time of filing cases or applications.

Responding to this the Filing Section clarified that there is no provision for 'mandatory' seeking Aadhaar number of litigants as per the guidelines from the Supreme Court and the software provided.

"It is clear that the written submission filed by dealing assistant or Branch in-charge of Filing Branch at Tis Hazari Courts, Delhi that though the case information format as per the guidelines of the Supreme Court contains a column seeking Aadhaar number, the same is not mandatory field to be filed in. In my view, above information suffices the query of appellant," the FAA said in his order, while asking the PIO to furnish copy of the case information format.

Here is the order passed by the FAA, Tis Hazari Court...

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