The Aadhaar card empowers those on the margins of society, which far outweighs its flaws, the Supreme Court said today, upholding the validity of the giant national ID scheme but with limits on how biometric data collected from more than one billion citizens can be used. In a four-one majority judgement, the court cleared the use of Aadhaar for access to welfare schemes but struck down attempts to make it mandatory for bank accounts, mobile phone connections and school admissions.
