NEW DELHI: BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy on Wednesday hailed the Supreme Court's verdict on Aadhaar act and said the apex court has validated Aadhaar card as an identity card but has not made it compulsory. “Earlier Aadhaar was compulsory for NEET exams, buying phone etc. Now all these are not compulsory,” he told ANI.

"The Aadhar data that was leaked to American companies was in a way a betrayal to the country," Swami said.

A majority verdict by Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A K Sikri and A M Khanwilkar declared the Centre's flagship Aadhaar scheme constitutionally valid but struck down some of its provisions, including its linking with bank accounts, mobile phones and school admissions.

The top court said Aadhaar serves a bigger public interest. Aadhaar means unique and it is better to be unique than be the best, it said.

While the BJP has described the Supreme Court judgement on Aadhaar as a big victory for the "pro-poor Modi government", the Congress said the top court supported the Congress' vision on the world's largest biometric scheme.



The court struck down Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act which allows private entities to demand Aadhaar to access their services. The court also said that as of today "we do not find anything in Aadhaar Act which violates right to privacy of individual citizen".

(With inputs from agencies)