The top court responded to a writ petition objecting to government attempts to make the card compulsory on the National Scholarship Portal.
The petition was filed by the All-Bengal Minority Students Council and ANR. The court has directed the chief justice of India to form a bench to hear matters related to the biometric identity scheme. The government has also been directed to stop making Aadhar mandatory for pre-matric, post-matric and merit-cum-means scholarship schemes and has been asked to remove the Aadhaar number as a "mandatory condition for student registration" on the National Scholarship Portal.
The Indian government is also reportedly pushing global technologygiants to embed the Aadhaar programme with their devices. The biometric programme has faced stiff opposition that claims it violates citizens' privacy and could hurt national security efforts.
This article was first published on Scroll.in