PARAGRAPH,WORDS AND MEANING

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Topic Of The Day:- “Finding An Equilibrium”

The Supreme Court’s verdict in the Aadhaar case is best read in light of the dissenting opinion

A thicket of Aadhaar litigation has now ended with the decision of a five-judge Supreme Court Bench comprising the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Justices A.K. Sikri, A.M. Khanwilkar, D.Y. Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, which had reserved its order on May 10, after a marathon 38-day hearing. The right to privacy was won in K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017), but that nine-judge Bench had left open the question of Aadhaar: whether the “national security” perspective (the vital role of surveillanceto curb terror and prevent money laundering and crime financing) and “social welfare state” perspective (Aadhaar ensured that subsidies went to the right people) provided constitutional grounds for “reasonable restrictions” (reasonable because non-arbitrary).

Although conceived and executively implemented during the UPA-2 regime, the project got coercivestatutory backing only during the NDA regime, in 2016. The Aadhaar Act has now been upheld, and Aadhaar is mandatory for all government benefits, as somewhat narrowly re-crafted by the majority. “[A]nnoyance, despair, ecstasy, euphoria, coupled with rhetoric, [were] exhibited by both sides”, but Justice Sikri rightly stressed the “posture of calmness”; the political fallouts of a decision, even in an election year, cannot be a matter for judicial concern.

The court examined only whether the entire scheme was constitutionally valid under the nine-judge Bench enunciation of the right to privacy and whether the decision of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha to pass the Aadhaar Act as a Money Bill was declared so “final” by the Constitution as to exclude even the jurisdiction of the apex court.

MEANING AND WORDS

1) surveillance

Meaning : close observation, especially of a suspected spy or criminal.

Synonyms : watch vigilance

Antonyms : carelessness

Example : “he found himself put under surveillance by British military intelligence”

2) curb

Meaning : a check or restraint on something.

Synonyms : check , control

Antonyms : aid

Example : “plans to introduce tougher curbs on insider dealing”

3) laundering

Meaning : wash and iron (clothes or linen).

Synonyms : wash , cleaning

Antonyms : dirtying

Example : “he wasn’t used to laundering his own bed linen”

4) conceived

Meaning : create (an embryo) by fertilizing an egg.

Synonyms : invented , imagined

Antonyms : destroyed

Example : “she was conceived when her father was 49”

5) executively

Meaning : relating to or having the power to put plans or actions into effect.

Synonyms : manager , director

Antonyms : attendant

Example : “an executive chairman”

6) regime

Meaning : a government, especially an authoritarian one.

Synonyms : government , administration

Antonyms : chaos

Example : “ideological opponents of the regime”

7) coercive

Meaning : relating to or using force or threats.

Synonyms : violent , forceful

Antonyms : powerless

Example : “coercive measures”

8) ecstasy

Meaning : an overwhelming feeling of great happiness or joyful excitement.

Synonyms : happiness , bliss

Antonyms : agony

Example : “there was a look of ecstasy on his face”

9) rhetoric

Meaning : the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the exploitation of figures of speech and other compositional techniques.

Synonyms : elocution , oratory

Antonyms : quiet

Example : “he is using a common figure of rhetoric, hyperbole”

10) enunciation

Meaning : say or pronounce clearly.

Synonyms : diction , articulation

Antonyms : verdict

Example : “she enunciated each word slowly”

11) exclude

Meaning : deny (someone) access to a place, group, or privilege.

Synonyms : eliminate , reject

Antonyms : include

Example : “the public were excluded from the board meeting”