A bench of Justices Naresh Patil and G S Kulkarni also said that merely grounding some aircraft or following the directive of the European Air Safety Authority (EASA) against the use of P&W 1100 engines belonging to the ‘450 and beyond’ series, was not enough.The court said it was the “duty” of the Union government (UoI) and the DGCA to ensure that all aircraft were safe for travel and passengers were assured of their safety.

UIDAI argued that mere availability of Aadhaar number with a third person “will not be a security threat to the Aadhaar holder” nor will it lead to financial or other fraud. This is because a transaction is contingent upon a successful authentication through fingerprint, Iris or OTP of the Aadhaar holder, UIDAI said.

“If somebody opens a bank account or gets a mobile phone by using the Aadhaar, the UIDAI cannot know the account details or the phone number,” he said, adding that no profiling can be done by using the Aadhaar, Ajay Bhushan Pandey, CEO of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) .

Minister of State for Electronics and IT K J Alphons said the government has adequate institutional mechanism under the IT Act, 2000, Indian Penal Code (IPC), Indecent Women Representation Act, POCSO etc to bring culprits under book.

Passport details in at the digital warehouse will help authorities to take timely action and check fraudsters from fleeing the country.