The apex court reiterated its earlier order, that government cannot make Aadhaar submission mandatory for the registration process on its national scholarship portal for students, reaffirming its stance to keep the identification scheme voluntary.

The court order came in response to a writ petition filed by a student body, which pointed out that the government’s attempts at making the scheme mandatory, was contrary to the SC’s interim order.

SC has now directed the ministry of electronics and information technology, to “remove Aadhaar number as a mandatory condition for student Registration form at the National Scholarship Portal”.