State can’t insist SC/ST students for Aadhaar card to avail post-matric scholarship scheme: Meghalaya HC

The court clarified that students will have to prove their identity as a resident using proof, including birth certificates or any other authenticated documents, when asked by the authorities for processing their scholarship claim.

The court was hearing a PIL filed by Greneth M. Sangma, who challenged a notification issued by the state which asked the SC/ST students, ineligible for the Union Government’s Post Matric Scholarship Scheme for SC/STs or any other scheme and desiring financial assistance, to provide Aadhaar number or undergo Aadhaar authentication.

The bench was hearing a PIL espousing the cause of various students who were unable to avail the benefits due to their failure of producing the Aadhaar cards.

Sangma’s advocate P T Sangma argued that several government notifications, including those by the Income Tax Department and others, exempt residents of Meghalaya from mandatory Aadhaar card authentication, pointing out that ‘Aadhaar card id is optional and not mandatory for the citizens who live in the State.’

He also argued that despite the exemption requirement of Aadhaar in the state, the secretary of the education department had issued the notification in 2023 directing the student to obtain Aadhaar card for receiving the exemptions.

The court noted that children who would be benefitting under the scheme had already enrolled themselves in schools and they would now be pursuing their higher secondary, i.e., to say Class-XI and Class-XII.

“If the students had already furnished the required details to establish their authenticity at the time of their admission and matriculations, for some reason, are unable to produce the Aadhaar number, they cannot be denied the benefit of the scheme,” it held.

The court, therefore, ruled that the notification as far as it “insists the production of Aadhaar card shall not be applicable to the SC/ST students of the State up to the post-matriculation level (up to the age of 18 years) for the post-matric scholarship scheme”.