Case Study: How RWL Platform Was Used To Get Aircel SIM Cards Without Aadhaar

Aadhaar is a well known phenomenon in India where the omnipresence of Aadhaar is considered to be violation of privacy right and other Fundamental Rights by many Indians. The constitutionality of Aadhaar project and Aadhaar Act, 2016 is still pending before the Supreme Court of India. So let us ignore that aspect and move ahead and discuss the case study where RWL platform was used by us and SIMs were activated by Aircel without Aadhaar within 2 days of generating a ticket/notice.

We created a ticket/notice at Online Dispute Resolution and Cyber Arbitration platform and TLCEODRI, one of the administrators of the platform, handled the ticket. He made Aircel, Perry4Law, Department of Telecommunication (DoT) and Shri. Manoj Sinha (Minister, DoT) parties to the dispute resolution process. Once all the parties were added as the stakeholders, he sent a customised notice to the stakeholders with all documents and evidences. Simultaneously many handles of Perry4Law Organisation (P4LO) started discussing the dispute resolution ticket at Twitter.

The Twitter handle of DoT was very quick in responding back and assured us that concerned TSP has been asked to do the needful. Thereafter, prepaid SIMs of Aircel were activated without any demand for Aadhaar.

Now compare this process with traditional litigation, including the one that is currently going on in Supreme Court for many years. Can such a remedy be obtained within 2 years forget about 2 days from courts? Even if such a remedy is possible within 2 days, is it feasible to invoke litigation mechanisms of already overburdened courts with such matters?

We need alternative, effective and timely remedies for various disputes in India and if even the most controversial and technical dispute of Aadhaar can be resolved within 2 days, we certainly needs online dispute resolution (ODR) in India. And this case study of RWL is a proof that this is much required in India especially when it can support Digital India project of Indian government and Indian judiciary.