Venture Global Engineering v. Satyam Computer Services Ltd.
- 2022-02-17
Citation: (2017) 10 SCC 1
Facts: Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) and Mr. Pravesh Khanna filed a writ petition in 2012 when Aadhaar scheme was not under legislative umbrella. In 2016, with the passing of the Aadhaar Act, the petitioners filed another writ petition challenging the vires of the Act. Many other petitions were filed and all were clubbed together as they had the same objective.
Issue: Whether the Finance Act comes under the definition of Money Bill as defined under Article 110 of the Constitution of India?
Judgement: The Court upheld the legal validity of Section 184 of the Finance Act, 2017.
The order found that since the circular issued by the Department of Telecommunications making such linkage mandatory was not backed by a law, it was illegal and unconstitutional. Justices Chandrachud and Bhushan delivered separate opinions in this case. While Justice Bhushan concurred with the majority view, Justice Chandrachud found the Aadhaar act “to be declared as as unconstitutional”. He also stated that the Aadhaar Act was not a money bill. “Superseding the authority of Rajya Sabha constitutes as a fraud on the Constitution,” he said.
The Aadhaar Act was held to be constitutional to the extent it allowed for Aadhaar number-based authentication for establishing the identity of an individual for receipt of a subsidy, benefit or service given by the Central or State Government funded from the Consolidated Fund of India.
However, the Supreme Court disallowed the use of individual Aadhaar numbers by any private entities for establishing the identity of the individual concerned for any purpose pursuant to a contract, on the basis that it was contrary to the fundamental right to privacy. The Supreme Court also ruled on a number of laws, circulars and directions, which required the mandatory linking of Aadhaar for receiving relevant services.
