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Parliamentarians observe silence during an obituary reference in the Rajya Sabha during Winter Session of Parliament, in New Delhi on January 4.[/caption]
New Delhi, Jan. 4 (PTI): Lok Sabha Friday passed a bill to amend the Aadhaar Act and two related laws which will allow individuals to offer voluntarily biometric ID as a means of identity verification for obtaining services such as opening bank account and procuring mobile phone connection.
The Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill proposes changes in the Aadhaar Act, Indian Telegraph Act and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act to comply with a Supreme Court judgement pronounced on September 26 last year, in which it upheld the constitutional validity of unique identification project with certain restrictions and changes.
The compulsory use of Aadhaar-based KYC for mobile connections and bank accounts was prohibited by the apex court.
Speaking on the bill, Union Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “Aadhaar being a digital identity has removed the role of a middleman in a substantial measure whose basic role was cutting, fitting and setting.”
In an emotive speech in the lower house of Parliament, Prasad displayed his Aadhaar card and said, “It doesn’t tell about my caste, religion and medical condition. It is safe and secured and is for India and Indians.”
“What does my Aadhaar number have? It has my name, my Patna address, and my father’s name. We are so open minded that we are following everything court said. The Supreme Court held Section 57 unconstitutional, we did the same,” Prasad said.
The bill also gives a minor the option to opt out of the 12-digit identity scheme on attaining the age of 18 years.
It also provides for stiff penalties for violation of norms set for the use of Aadhaar.
“Out of 130 crore people in the country as many as 123 crore people have reposed faith in Aadhaar. Prime Minister Narendra Modi strengthened it with Aadhaar Act. We have issued a circular that nobody should be denied benefits for the want of Aadhaar. We have also said that nobody will be denied medical services for the want of Aadhaar,” Prasad said.
He further said that through Aadhaar, technology is being used to transform India, poor are feeling empowered and INR 90,000 crore has been saved.
Prasad also informed the house if people don’t want to show their Aadhaar number, so, “we gave them a provision of 12 digit number which masks there Aadhaar number”.
The Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill 2018, moved by Prasad in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, bans storing of core biometric information as well as Aadhaar number by service providers in cases of individuals who have voluntarily offered the national ID as a means of authentication.
It also makes it clear that anyone not offering Aadhaar cannot be denied any service, be it a bank account or a SIM card.
The bill seeks to amend the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016, the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 and the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002.
The legislation proposes telecom service providers, apart from using Aadhaar for authentication, can also leverage off-line verification, use of passport, or any other officially valid document or modes of identification as notified by the central Government.
Lok Sabha also passed the Companies( Amendment) Bill, 2018 that seeks to improve ease of doing business, declog the NCLT and prescribe strong action against non-compliant companies.
The bill was passed with a voice vote with amendments moved by the Minister of State for Corporate Affairs P P Chaudhary.
The bill has been brought with a view to declog the Special Courts and National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Chaudhary said.
It will also reduce the burden on NCLT and Special Courts and improve ease of doing business in the country, the Minister added.
The government last year had promulgated an ordinance to amend the companies’ law.
The Corporate Affairs Ministry, which is implementing the Act, has been looking at ways to promote ease of doing business as well as to ensure better compliance levels.
In August last year, a government-appointed panel suggested various changes to the Act, including restructuring of corporate offences under the companies law and an in-house adjudication mechanism to ensure that courts get more time to deal with serious violations.
Apart from restructuring of corporate offences to relieve special courts from adjudicating routine offences, the panel has mooted “re-categorisation of 16 out of the 81 compoundable offences” under the Act.
The committee had also recommended disqualification of directors in case they have directorships beyond permissible limits and capping an independent director’s remuneration.
Cutting across party lines, women MPs in the Rajya Sabha on Friday asked the Modi government to pass the women reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha ensuring 33 per cent quota for women.
Raising the issue during zero hour, women members from the Congress, Samajwadi Party, Telugu Desam Party, Janata Dal United (JD-U), CPI-M, AIADMK, Trinamool Congress and DMK urged the government to use its majority in the Lok Sabha to get the Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill, commonly known as the women reservation Bill, passed.
The Rajya Sabha has already passed the Bill in 2010.
Congress MP Viplove Thakur said that women could not be truly empowered until they become decision makers, and reminded the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of its promise to bring the Bill.
Samajwadi Party member Jaya Bachchan sought to clarify that her party was not against the Bill but wanted some changes in the legislation.
“There are unnecessary rumours that our party is against this bill. We are for it, but we have certain recommendations,” she said.
“It is very sad that women have to put up with decisions made by men throughout their lives. Even here men are making decision for women,” said DMK leader Kanimozhi.
Trinamool MP Shanta Chhetri said the West Bengal government had already provided 50 per cent reservation to women in local bodies.
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) member Jharna Das Baidya demanded to know as to what was stopping the BJP from getting the Bill passed in the Lok Sabha where it has a majority.
AIADMK’s Vijila Sathyananth and TDP’s V. Thota Seetharama Lakshmi said their parties also support the legislation and asked the government to ensure its passage.
Nominated MP and danseuse Sonal Mansingh said women members would bring “grace, wisdom and harmony” in the legislative bodies.