How can police expect UIDAI to compare fingerprints of dead with Aadhaar biometrics of over 100 crore people? asks HC judge

Madras High Court questions Tamil Nadu police's request for UIDAI to compare fingerprints of unidentified bodies with Aadhaar data.

The Madras High Court on Thursday wondered how the Tamil Nadu police can expect the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to compare the fingerprints of an unclaimed body with the Aadhaar data pertaining to over 100 crore people in order to ascertain the identity of the dead.

Justice P. Velmurugan said, it was “ridiculous” on the part of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Tindivanam Sub Division, Villupuram district, to have filed a petition seeking a direction to the UIDAI to provide the demographic details of an unidentified body using its fingerprints.

“Our country has a population of 1.4 billion. Assuming 1 billion people had enrolled for Aadhaar so far, do you expect UIDAI to obtain fingerprints of dead bodies, in every unsolved criminal case, and compare them with the biometric data pertaining to 100 crore people?” the judge asked.

He also said, the police should not waste time by pursuing such matters with the UIDAI just because they were unable to make a breakthrough in criminal cases involving unknown bodies. Aadhaar is not the only way to solve a crime, there were other means of investigation too, he said.

The judge dismissed the DSP’s petition after Additional Solicitor General AR.L. Sundaresan, assisted by Central government senior panel counsel K. Srinivasamurthy, said, it would be impossible to compare the fingerprints of the dead with the Aadhaar database and provide demographic information to the police.

The ASG told the court that the UIDAI would be able to do only a one-to-one match meaning it could take the fingerprints and iris scan of an individual holding a valid 12-digit Aadhaar number and find out whether they match with his/her core biometric data obtained while enrolling for Aadhaar.

Mr. Sundaresan also stated that UIDAI does not collect biometric information based on technologies, standards or procedures suitable for forensic purposes and therefore, it would not be possible for the authority to cull out data related to an individual from sample fingerprints lifted from a body.