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NATIONAL AFFAIRS

PROGRAMME LAW & JUSTICE

Face recognition option soon for Four SC judges air
Aadhaar differences with

The Unique Identification Authority fingerprints-did not match with CJI Misra
of India (UIDAI), on 15 January 2018, their biometric data saved in the
In an unprecedented act, four senior
announced face recognition as an Aadhaar database, have been judges of the Supreme Court on 12
additional layer of Aadhaar reported.
January 2018 held a press conference
authentication. The new feature can  The face authentication feature and publicly accused Chief Justice of
be used in “fusion” with the existing will be an additional option, UIDAI
India Dipak Misra of selectively
fingerprint or iris scans or one-time said, “allowed only in fusion mode
passwords (OTP). Face recognition along with one more assigning cases to judges of his
choice without any rational basis.
will be available starting July 1 and is authentication factor.” The face
expected to easy authentication for authentication will be allowed to Transcending judicial protocol
that sitting judges should not interact
individuals unable to use fingerprint verify a person’s identity only with
with the media, Justices Jasti
or biometric authentication. either biometric-fingerprint or iris-
The move comes days after the or with the One Time Password Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan
UIDAI introduced the most (OTP) authentication. B Lokur and Kurian Joseph — the
significant security upgrade last week  Also, the new facility “with senior-most judges after the CJI —
with Virtual Ids (VID) to assuage liveness detection can be used as accused Justice Misra of assigning
security and privacy concerns. A an additional factor to increase cases of “far-reaching consequences to
Virtual ID (VID) will be a temporary security”. Liveness detection the nation” to junior hand-picked judges
16-digit random number mapped with enables any system to confirm that against the time-tested convention,
the Aadhaar number. There can only the biometric information is practice and tradition of the court.
be one active and valid VID for an provided by a genuine and living In a letter addressed to the CJI and
Aadhaar number at any given time and person. circulated at the press meet, the four
it will not be possible to derive the According to the UIDAI, Aadhaar said certain Supreme Court judges
Aadhaar number from VID. The VID users need not provide any additional arrogated to themselves the
authentication will be similar to using data to use the face recognition “authority to deal with and pronounce
Aadhaar numbers. However, since a service. The face authentication
upon” cases which ought to be heard
VID is temporary, agencies will not be option will use the photograph by other appropriate Benches. The
able to use it for de-duplication. VIDs available with UIDAI for verification,
letter is of October 2017 origin.
are expected to provide two layers of matching it with a photograph captured Justice Chelameswar, speaking for
firewalls between Aadhaar-holders by a registered device of an agency at
the four, said they had collectively
and authentication agencies from the time of authentication of a person.
accessing an Aadhaar number. The UIDAI will also help tried to persuade the Chief Justice to
take remedial measures but their efforts
Significance authentication agencies update their
 This facility is going to help in systems to accept face recognition. had failed. Justice Chelameswar
recounted that the trigger for the press
inclusive authentication of those The UIDAI said it would work with
conference was a meeting they held
who are not able to biometrically biometric devices providers to
authenticate due to their worn out integrate the face modality into the with the Chief Justice regarding the
fingerprints, old age or hard work certified registered devices, or may assignment of a petition, seeking an
conditions. At present fingerprints provide standalone registered devices, independent probe into the
and iris scans are the available depending on the requirement. mysterious death of CBI judge BH
modes of biometric authentications. It will also provide the software Loya, to a particular Bench. Loya was
 Since Aadhaar was introduced as development kits “in various the CBI judge hearing the
an identifier for over 100 welfare operating systems which will have the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case.
schemes, and has been linked to ability to capture face image, check The four had expressed their
several other services, cases of liveness, and create digitally signed reservations to the CJI about the
people unable to access food and encrypted authentication input assignation of the case. But the CJI
under the Public Distribution (PID block) as required.” had refused to budge. They had then
System or their money because The support for the authentication informed him of their intention to go
their biometrics-usually agencies will be rolled out by March 1. public.

30 Competition Wizard March 2018