The SC, by way of its order in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) & Anr. v. Union of India & Ors.[1], upheld the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 (‘Aadhaar Act’), but struck down certain provisions including its linking with bank accounts, mobile phones and school admissions. The judgment was passed with a majority of 4:1.Some of the key observations of the majority decision are set out below:i.  The Aadhaar Act meets the concept of limited government, good governance and constitutional trust, and does not tend to create a surveillance state. It is not held to be violative of the right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution of India (‘Constitution’) and serves the legitimate State aim, i.e. to ensure that social benefits reach the deserving community.ii.  The passing of the Aadhaar Act as a ‘Money Bill’ was upheld on the ground that Section 7, which is the core provision of the Aadhaar Act, satisfies the conditions of Article 110 of the Constitution (which sets out the criteria for a ‘Money Bill’).iii.  Authentication records are not to be retained beyond six months (as opposed to six years required under the Aadhaar Act).iv.  Any individual, whose information is sought to be released, will be afforded with an opportunity of being heard. The provision enabling any body corporate/person to seek authentication services on the basis of purported agreement between an individual and such body corporate/ person has been struck down as unconstitutional as it would lead to commercial exploitation of individual biometric and demographic information by private entities.v.  Section 139AA of the IT Act which makes it mandatory to quote Aadhaar when filing tax returns or for allotment of Permanent Account Number, was upheld.vi.  A robust data protection regime, in the form of an enactment on the basis of Justice B.N. Srikrishna (Retd.) Committee Report with necessary modifications, should be adopted. Please refer to our Client Alert dated August 3, 2018 available at https://www.azbpartners.com/bank/the-personal-data-protection-bill-2018/, for key highlights of the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018.Dissenting with the majority, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud held the Aadhaar Act to be unconstitutional for failing to meet the requirements of a Money Bill under Article 110(1) of the Constitution. While elaborating on several other infirmities in the Aadhaar Act, he also declared the Aadhaar Act to be violative of various fundamental rights, including the right to privacy and directed the Government to initiate steps to bring a fresh legislation for ensuring conformity with this judgment, till which time the data collected under the Aadhaar Act will neither be destroyed nor be used for any purpose whatsoever. If the Government fails to bring such legislation within a period of one year, it is directed that the data will be destroyed.[1] Judgment dated September 26, 2018, in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 494 of 2012