The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its judgement in the Aadhaar case. A Constitution bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra is hearing a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar programme and its enabling law.

Attorney General of India KK Venugopal said the hearing, which began on January 17 and lasted 38 days, was the second-longest in the history of the top court after Kesavanada Bharati versus State of Kerala (1973), Live Law reported.

The petitioners have raised privacy concerns and have also questioned why the identity number has been made mandatory for people to avail of welfare schemes, file income tax returns, and hold mobile numbers and bank accounts.

Supreme Court Justice DY Chandrachud, who is part of the bench, on Wednesday said that failures in authentication using Aadhaar could create problems for those in need, and a solution was needed to address the issue. He gave the example of his mother, suffering from Alzheimer’s, who had to provide a thumb impression every month to get her pension.