New Delhi: The Bombay high court on October 29 issued an order stating that Aadhaar is not mandatory for the identification of beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) but is only one of the criteria under the law, Bar and Bench has reported.The order came after residents in the tribal areas of Thane approached the court complaining that the authorities have denied them food grains as their Aadhar cards were not linked to the RCMS portal, says the report.As per the report, a two judge-bench comprised of Justices P.B. Varle and Madhav Jamdar highlighted the validity of ration cards under the NFSA and categorically stated that mandatory imposition of Aadhaar was in clear violation of the Union government’s notification issued on February 8, 2017.The court noted, “This notification clearly states that for identification of the beneficiary, Aadhaar Card is one of the criteria and the perusal of notification shows that for identifying the beneficiary, the Aadhaar card is not the sole criteria. There is another document on which the beneficiary can rely upon to receive the benefits of the scheme that is the ration card.”Therefore, the court has directed the Maharastra government and civic authorities to distribute food grains among the residents of the tribal areas of Murdbad in accordance with NFSA and the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, even if residents do not possess an Aadhar card while providing the authorities the liberty to verify ration cards of the concerned persons, says the report.“We are unable to find any logic, reason or rationale for denying the benefits of distribution of food grains to the petitioners and alike persons raising certain technical ground by the respondent authorities,” the bench noted.According to the report, the court also expressed its disappointment over the situation where the marginalised section of society is forced to approach the court during the festive season in order to access their basic right to food which is being denied by the state on merely ‘technical grounds’.“It is a disheartening situation for us when we the fortunates are eagerly awaiting as the festive season is approaching and… here are the few petitioners from the marginalised sections in general and tribals in particular who have approached this court on a grievance that they are deprived of the basic requirement of human life i.e. food, only on account that the state machinery is not technically equipped to give them the benefits,” the order said.The court relied on the famous K.S. Puttuswamy judgement, in which the Supreme Court upheld that living a dignified life is a constitutional right while directing the authorities in its order to complete the entire exercise of distribution of food grains by November 4, 2021.According to a report, several scholars have spoken out against the mandatory imposition of Aadhaar, claiming that it violates the rights of the marginalised. Abinash Dash Choudhury while referring to a story of an Adivasi man in Jharkhand who died out of prolonged hunger in 2018 wrote for The Wire, “The right to life, which essentially ensures the right to a dignified life, and is the foundation of the National Food Security Act, 2013, has been trampled on extensively.”Similarly, several governments during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns relied on Aadhaar to issue e-coupons as in the case of Delhi to provide free food during the lockdown – which kept several out of the ambit, as this analysis on The Wire sought to highlight.