Sureties faking Aadhaar: Punjab and Haryana High Court orders verification of Aadhaar in bail cases

The Punjab and Haryana High Court recently directed the authorities to provide Aadhaar authentication services in the courts of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh to curb impersonation of sureties in bail matters [Sharanjit Singh @ Suraj vs State of Punjab]..Surety is a person who stands as a guarantee for ensuring presence of an accused who is being released on bail. The menace of sureties faking their identity is widespread, the Court said. In the present cases, the sureties had mostly faked their Aadhaar cards. Considering the same, the Court observed that verification of the Aadhaar cards needs to be seamless.Justice Pankaj Jain thus asked the States of Punjab, Haryana and UT Chandigarh to apply to the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology under Aadhaar Authentication for Good Governance (Social Welfare, Innovation, Knowledge) Rules, 2020 for Aadhaar authentication services in the court premises.“The said application once received by the Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and IT, shall be considered favourably within a further period of 30 days. The necessary equipment to be provided to the Courts in terms of the applicable scheme with applicable contribution by the State and the Central Government will be provided within a further period of 30 days,” the Court ordered..It added that the entire system be made operational within a period of four months. “The infrastructure for bio-metric verification of the Aadhaar card at the Court premises shall be provided by the NIC, with the technical assistance of UIDAI [Unique Identification Authority of India],” the order said..The order was passed in a batch of bail petitions moved by persons accused of having faked their identity while furnishing surety bonds pursuant to bail orders by the courts.The Court said that professional sureties have become the norm as genuine people are wary to encumber their property due to prolonged trials. It also blamed the insistence of courts on sureties instead of releasing the accused on personal bonds.“Delay in trials is leading to a situation where genuine surety is being pushed out by professional surety. Just like it is famously said, “bad money keeps good money out of circulation”,” the Court said..In the present cases, since the accused had faked their Aadhaar cards, the Court said that there should be seamless verification of the Aadhaar cards. It also referred to a Supreme Court order in which notice was issued to UIDAI to explore the feasibility of evolving a mechanism to verify the genuineness of the surety.The Court also said the usage of Aadhaar cards in criminal investigation and protection of revenue “was held to be among the legitimate aims of the State by Five Judges Bench in K.S. Puttaswamy vs. Union of India, (2019)”..In this backdrop, the Court issued directions for making available the infrastructure for Aadhaar authentication in the courts.Once the infrastructure is put in place, the courts while accepting surety shall insist for complete details and identity document of surety including Aadhaar Card, the High Court directed.“Consent of the surety shall be obtained for verification of Aadhaar card,” the single-judge added..The Court further said that the Magistrate concerned shall verify the Aadhaar card of the accused in the case of personal bond and the Aadhaar cards of the sureties as well in the case of surety bonds.“The Principal District Judge and the Chief Judicial Magistrates shall inspect the register of Sureties periodically, preferably after every three months,” it further ordered.The Registrar General of the High Court was directed to issue necessary circulars to all the courts in the States of Punjab, Haryana and UT Chandigarh. “Necessary Rules be also framed in this respect, in the meantime, if so required,” the order said..Advocate Aditya Sanghi was amicus curiae in the case.Advocate Ramesh Sharma, BR Rana, Randeep Singh, HPS Ishar and Sanyam Khetarpal represented the petitioners.Additional Advocate General Ravinder Singh represented the State of Punjab.Deputy Advocate General Gaurav Bansal represented the State of Haryana.Advocates Dheeraj Jain and Sahil Garg represented the Union of India and UIDAI.[Read Judgment]