Delhi High Court Rejected The PIL For Direct Linkage Of Aadhaar With Social Media

Delhi High Court has declined to order the linking of the social media account with Aadhaar card, PAN, VoterID or any of the identification documents in order to remove fake, duplicate and ghost accounts.

A bench of judge D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar said linking of accounts with social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, with Aadhaar, PAN or the other identity document needs framing of policies or change in existing laws by the central government and this exercise can not be done by the court.

"Role of courts is to interpret the law as it is. We are not concerned with what the law should be," it said, adding that in exceptional cases where there is a gap in the law, the courts can step in.

Court had said the linking of social media accounts with identity document data like Aadhaar, PAN or voter Id was a critical matter which has to be intervened by the central government and it cannot be looked like a gap which needs to be filled by the court as it "would have far-reaching consequences regarding data of genuine account holders".

Moreover, the court also said according to BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, who had moved the plea, 20 percent of the social media accounts were "fake, ghost or duplicate".

"To comb out twenty percent pretend accounts all the information, together with that of real account holders, will go to a foreign country. The majority of account holders are real. Therefore, if the linkage is ordered by this court, there perhaps a scenario wherever knowledge of real account holders will also go to a foreign country, perhaps unnecessarily," the court same.

During the hearing, the petitioner has also mentioned that anyone can create a fake account on social media of any person, including the judges, and through that medium wrong or controversial information can be spread.

He had also alleged in his petition that fake social media accounts are used to propagate "fake and paid news" during the elections.