India's Supreme Court has voted to uphold the legality of the country's controversial Aadhaar program, the world's largest biometric database which contains the personal details of an estimated 1.2 billion Indian citizens. In a 4:1 verdict Wednesday, the five-judge bench ruled that the scheme does not violate the right to privacy, a key element in a long running case challenging its constitutional validity.
The ruling will continue to permit the government to request Aadhaar information for tax reasons. "We see it as a big victory of the Modi government," said Sambit Patra, spokesman for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). "The Supreme Court has upheld the constitutional validity of Aadhaar, and has also said that it does not violate privacy," he added.