Why it is in news?

• The Supreme Court  decided to constitute a five-judge Constitution Bench to hear petitions from November against the validity of the Aadhaar scheme.
• A separate Bench of SC, meanwhile, issued notice to the government on a petition challenging the mandatory linking of Aadhaar with mobile numbers.
• Petition  said the linkage was “orchestrated by the Union of India in tandem with private telecom service providers” in violation of the fundamental right to privacy. 

Urgent mentioning

•  AG said a Constitution Bench may be set up to decide, once and for all, the various Aadhaar challenges pending before the court since 2014 instead of passing any interim orders.
• The decision to set up a five-judge Bench comes despite SC separate judgment in the nine-judge Bench declaring privacy as a fundamental right.
• Privacy judgment had directed the Aadhaar petitions to be posted for hearing before the ‘original’ three-judge Bench.

Historic judgment

• It had referred the legal question to a nine-judge Bench, which came out with the historic judgment in favour of the common man’s fundamental right to privacy against state intrusions.
• The nine-judge Bench verdict has a crucial bearing in the Aadhaar petitions, which have argued that Aadhaar's use of biometric details like fingerprints and iris scans violate bodily and informational privacy.
• The petitioners argue that mandatory requirement of Aadhaar for these schemes "constrict rights and freedoms which a citizen has long been enjoying unless and until they part with their personal biometric information to the government".
• The petitions have termed the Aadhaar Act of 2016 as unconstitutional and contrary to concept of limited and accountable governance.