The Supreme Court on Thursday asked why the petitioners against the Aadhaar identification system did not want to share personal data with the government even though they did so readily with private companies. The bench also said the Centre should ensure that private companies do not sell the personal data they collect from citizens.

Thursday was the second day of a five-judge Constitution bench hearing petitions that challenge the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar system.

“You want insurance policy, you go to a private company,” the bench said, according to PTI. “You want mobile connection, you go to private entities and part with personal information. Here, the government has multiplied the options...the moment the government asks you to give proof of address and other details, you have a problem and you say ‘sorry.’”

In response, advocate Shyam Divan, who represents the petitioners, said the problem was that there was no contract with the entity with which citizens were asked to share data.

He said: “Here, the private enrolment agency is not your banker or insurance agent or mobile service provider. You have no contract with the enrolling agencies. We are being compelled by the state to part with such sensitive data to private bodies.”

Divan added that the private parties were “so much outside the control of the Unique Identification Authority of India” that they could use citizens’ data for their own commercial purposes. “There is no binding contract between the UIDAI and the private agencies employed to collect biometric and other details for granting Aadhaar numbers,” he argued.

The petitions primarily question the validity of Aadhaar based on privacy concerns. They also challenge several other aspects of Aadhaar and the data collected under it being shared, including making it mandatory for social welfare benefits, to file income tax returns and linking it to mobile numbers and Permanent Account Numbers.

In a landmark ruling in August 2017, the Supreme Court had declared privacy a fundamental right protected under Article 21 of the Constitution. This was seen as a major blow to the Centre’s push for Aadhaar.

The Constitution bench was set up on December 13, 2017, but two days later, the Supreme Court agreed to the Centre’s submissions to extend the deadline to link Aadhaar with all government schemes and services to March 31. The interim order also extended the deadline to link Aadhaar with mobile numbers to the end of the financial year.