(a): Yes, Sir.
(b): A Writ Petition No. 494 of 2012 titled Justice (Retd.) K.S. Puttaswamy & Anr Vs Union of India & Ors was filed in the Hon’ble Supreme Court, challenging the legal validity of the Aadhaar Scheme. Thereafter, a batch of other writ petitions (W.P No. 829 of 2013 filed by S.G Vombatkere, W.P No. 833 of 2013 filed by Smt Aruna Roy, W.P No. 932 of 2013 filed by Nagrik Chetna Manch, W.P No. 37 of 2015 filed by Sh Mathew Thomas, W.P No. 220 of 2014 and W.P No. 797 of 2016 filed by Sh S.G Vombatkere etc) were filed before the Hon’ble Supreme Court which were tagged together with W.P No. 494 of 2012 and stands transferred, to be heard before a Constitutional Bench. Additionally, a Writ Petition No. 231 of 2016 was also filed by Sh Jairam Ramesh, challenging the Aadhaar Bill (now an Act).
The Government had introduced the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016, in the Parliament on 03-03-2016, and was passed by the Parliament on 16-03-2016. The Bill received the assent of the President on 25-03-2016 and has been published in the Official Gazette of India Extraordinary, Part-II, Section 1 dated 26-03-2016, as Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 (Act No. 18 of 2016).
(c): The Hon’ble Supreme Court, vide its Interim Order dated 11-08-2015, had directed that the production of Aadhaar Card will not be a condition for obtaining any benefits otherwise due to a citizen and had directed that Aadhaar card will not be used for any purpose other than PDS scheme, Kerosene and LPG, which was later extended to include schemes of MGNREGS, NSAP Pensions (Old Age Pensions, Widow Pensions, Disability Pensions), PMJDY and EPFO, vide its interim order dated 15-10-2015. Further, the Hon’ble Supreme Court vide the order dated 15-10-2015 had also directed the Union of India to strictly follow all the earlier orders passed commencing from 23-09-2013 and had also directed that the Aadhaar card scheme is purely voluntary and it cannot be made mandatory till the matter is finally decided by the Court, one way or the other.
The above orders of the Hon’ble Supreme Court are being strictly adhered to. Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act provide that if an Aadhaar number is not assigned to an individual, the individual shall be offered alternate and viable means of identification for delivery of the subsidy, benefit or service.
(d). As on 15th November, 2016, 107.83 crore Aadhaars Numbers have been generated in the country. Further, since inception and until 23-11-2016, a total of 106.34 crore Aadhaar letters have been printed and dispatched to the residents through Department of Posts (DoP). An expenditure of nearly ` 1052 crore has been incurred on account of printing and delivery of the Aadhaar letters. The State / UT wise details with regard to generation and delivery details of Aadhaar, vis-a-vis the population, as per the 2011 census is given in the Annexure.
(e). UIDAI communicates the Aadhaar Numbers (UID) to residents in physical and electronic forms. The mode of delivery of the physical Aadhaar letter is through First Class digitally Franked Mail Service for which the Department of Posts do not provide any dispatch number or tracking facility.
UIDAI receives grievances related to non-receipt of Aadhaar letters in Aadhaar Contact Centre/Grievance Portal/e-mails and UIDAI has set up an internal mechanism to resolve resident grievances on non-receipt of Aadhaar letters, by way of reprinting and resending these letters. Further, the electronic form of the Aadhaar letter, commonly called as the e-aadhaar, is a PDF document, and is digitally signed by UIDAI. The e-aadhaar can be downloaded by the resident from the website of UIDAI, as soon as the Aadhaar number is successfully generated. This service was launched by UIDAI in 2012 with the objective to fill the gap between the rate of Aadhaar enrolments and distribution of printed Aadhaar letters to the resident by post. This facility has been very well received by residents over time and has facilitated UIDAI with fast and quick communication of Aadhaar Numbers.
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ANNEXURE
State / UT Total Population as per 2011 census Aadhaar generated as on 15th Nov 2016 Aadhaar Letters dispatched as on 23-11-2016
A & N Islands 379944 385849 387456
Andhra Pradesh 49378776 50432763 87704986
Telangana 35220187 37791654
Arunachal Pradesh 1382611 911904 901166
Assam 31169272 1816459 1636589
Bihar 103804637 79470580 77467744
Chandigarh 1054686 1098281 1122832
Chhattisgarh 25540196 26071178 25858854
Dadra & Nagar Haveli 342853 341573 342834
Daman & Diu 242911 209673 211159
Delhi 16753235 20202682 20301930
Goa 1457723 1475193 1469445
Gujarat 60383628 54759599 54468102
Haryana 25353081 27010039 26990978
Himachal Pradesh 6856509 7211996 7221680
Jammu and Kashmir 12548926 8716280 7738436
Jharkhand 32966238 33217756 33096485
Karnataka 61130704 58373198 57987442
Kerala 33387677 34508738 34260644
Lakshadweep 64429 66590 63425
Madhya Pradesh 72597565 68928024 68666332
Maharashtra 112372972 109388576 104223087
Manipur 2721756 1889539 1761431
Meghalaya 2964007 239314 194229
Mizoram 1091014 547435 476774
Nagaland 1980602 1114545 1071056
Odisha 41947358 36087515 35145440
Puducherry 1244464 1272790 1268476
Punjab 27704236 29332331 29409898
Rajasthan 68621012 61266437 61188685
Sikkim 607688 587655 588600
Tamil Nadu 72138958 66029212 65540028
Tripura 3671032 3615936 3636708
Uttar Pradesh 199581477 166234447 165055241
Uttarakhand 10116752 9567272 9484086
West Bengal 91347736 78217070 76512933
Grand Total 1210126852 1078390083 1063455190
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