Supreme Court Seeks Responses Over Aadhaar-Social Media Linking Cases

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a notice to the Centre and others seeking their response on Facebook's plea to transfer four cases from three High Courts to itself. The cases sought to link Aadhaar or other government authorised identity proofs to social media accounts for authentication. The responses would help the apex court decide whether social networking sites should be compelled to share with police information pertaining to criminals.

The apex court sought responses from social media entities Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube, apart from the Centre and Tamil Nadu Government, on Facebook's plea, and listed the matter for further hearing on September 13. However, the Supreme Court did not stay proceedings in the High Courts but refrained them from passing any final order.

The Supreme Court's order came on the submission made by Facebook that the transfer of cases would serve the interests of justice by avoiding the possibility of conflicting decisions from the High Courts.