UID for scholarship in IISc
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Last month, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) administration sent emails to students saying that they are "advised" to link their UID (Aadhaar) numbers to their bank accounts. Earlier, during the August 2016 admissions, IISc had made it compulsory for freshers to submit their UID numbers. These policies are in blatant violation of the Supreme Court verdict dated October 15, 2015, in the case of Justice K. S. Puttaswamy (retd) vs Union of India, among others.
Concern has been following these developments and has been trying to resist this imposition. Towards that goal, we have filed two applications under the Right to Information Act (2005).
RTI Request 1 (to IISc): Clarifying whether UID is mandatory for scholarship and/or admission
Attached is a copy of our RTI application dated December 19, 2016 in which we demanded clarification regarding whether UID is mandatory for scholarship and/or admission. Also attached is the reply from the institute in which they clarified that submitting UID numbers was NOT mandatory for the August 2016 admissions. Further, they distanced themselves from legal responsibility for the imposition of UID for scholarship saying that it is beyond the purview of the institute. Taking their words at face value, we then approached the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).
RTI Request 2 (to MHRD): Getting a copy of the MHRD letter
In the email the IISc administration sent to the students, they mentioned a letter from MHRD which is behind this push towards seeding of UID numbers. This letter has not been made public. So, Concern has filed a second application under the Right to Information Act (2005) to get a copy of this letter. Attached is a copy of our RTI application dated December 27, 2016. As of today, we are awaiting a reply.
We urge our fellow students from IISc and institutes all over the country to resist the imposition of UID and to join us in this struggle.