UIDAI refuses to disclose details of its contract with foreign MNCs
28 Aug, 2013
An application was filed with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking the details of the contracts signed by the identification authority with the foreign multinational companies to collect the personal data of Indian citizens under Aadhaar scheme.
The reply to the application, given by the UIDAI, states that the demanded information cannot be provided to the applicant as a non-disclosure agreement was signed by the authority and the MNCs. The first appellate authority of UIDAI also upheld the decision of the PIO when the first appeal was filed by the applicant.
Now the appellant, Mathew Thomas, has filed an appeal with the Central Information Commission (CIC) against the previous orders. The appellant has claimed that the database of all the Indian citizens falling into the hands of private multinational agencies could even jeopardise the national security.
Mathew Thomas has said that in 2005, the ‘Real ID Act’ was passed in the US to incorporate biometrics in driving licenses and in the ‘National ID Card Act’ in the UK. These measures were incorporated to keep a check on the illegal immigrants.