The Supreme Court has observed that the cancellation of three to four crore ration cards in India due to non-connection with Aadhaar is a very serious matter. The court has sought an explanation regarding this from the Centre and the states within four weeks.

In the Aadhaar case, the Supreme Court's biggest directive to the central government was that no one should be denied rights on the ground of non-availability of Aadhaar. The central government had agreed to this in court at that time. But when Aadhaar became a reality, the centre is taking steps to deny many human rights for not being connected to Aadhaar.

Koyli Devi, a native of Jharkhand, who filed the PIL, said there were several starvation deaths in UP, Odisha, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Bengal and Andhra Pradesh due to non-receipt of rations. The petitioner is the mother of 11-year-old Santoshi Kumari who died of starvation in 2018. But the Additional Solicitor General, appearing for the central government, told the court in a reply that all the cancelled cards were fake. The cancelled cards include the cards of several people in various tribal areas. India is a land of diversity. There are thousands of people in many tribal areas who have not yet taken up the Aadhaar card. Even though some of them have taken the Aadhar cards, they do not have proper access to the internet to link the Aadhar cards with their ration cards.

Declaring food as a right and denying that right on the ground that it is not linked to Aadhaar is not fair. The government has to be careful in making such decisions. The ration cards are getting linked to the Aadhar cards as part of the 'One Nation, One Ration Card' scheme. Since 99 per cent of ration cards in Kerala are already linked to Aadhaar, it won't a big problem here. But that is not the case across India. There are a total of 23.58 crore ration cards in India. Of these, only 89 per cent are linked to Aadhaar. Though the central notification states that the ration card should be linked to Aadhaar, officials will accept it even if it is linked to a mobile number or bank account. The government itself should make arrangements at the village and panchayat offices to provide Aadhaar connectivity to those living in isolated areas of the country. It is unjust to deny the Right to Food on the technical grounds that it was not connected.