Calcutta High Court Seeks Affidavit from Union Government Over Alleged Aadhaar Deactivation in Bengal

The Union government was asked to provide an affidavit by April 24 detailing the reasons behind the purported deactivation of certain persons' Aadhaar card links by the Calcutta High Court on Thursday.

A division bench made up of Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya and Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam gave the directive.

The Aadhaar cards of over a thousand Indian nationals residing in Bengal were allegedly illegally deactivated by the Narendra Modi government, according to a suit filed in the high court by the Joint Forum Against NRC and its convenor, Prasenjit Bose.

Attorney Jhuma Sen represented the petitioner and requested an injunction for the Union government to reactivate the Aadhaar cards as soon as possible, arguing that the Center's action violated constitutional provisions.

Sen asked the court to seek an order prohibiting the Center from taking any more action of this nature until the petition was resolved, claiming that the move had caused alarm among regular individuals.

The plea was filed last week when Ashok Chakraborty, the additional solicitor general for eastern India, argued that the court ought to notify the attorney general to request that he take up the case because it included parliamentary matters. Thus, a notification was issued. However, the extra solicitor general spoke on behalf of the Union government because the attorney general was unable to attend.

According to Chakraborty, the court shouldn't give the petition undue weight.

"The government is taking this action against foreign nationals who are either unlawfully present in the country or have entered the country." For the sake of national security, it must be completed. It is undoubtedly an error if the Aadhaar link of any law-abiding citizen has been disabled, according to Chakraborty.

Additionally, he stated that the petitioner failed to provide the names and locations of the individuals whose Aadhaar cards were cancelled, hence the court should not examine the case.

"The Union government should have then intimated to the persons concerned that it was merely an error," stated Advocate Sen. Conversely, the government remains silent on the matter.

"The Prime Minister has been contacted by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to inquire about the reasons behind the deactivation of Aadhaar cards, but she has not received a response as of yet," she continued.

The division bench scheduled a hearing for April 24 and issued the interim order after hearing from both sides.

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