Extremely happy with Aadhaar verdict: TRAI Chairman

New Delhi : R.S. Sharma, Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), on Wednesday welcomed the Supreme Court's judgment on Aadhaar and said he is "extremely happy" with the verdict.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar Act, although it disallowed private entities from seeking Aadhaar number from consumers. In turn, telecom companies, too, would not be able to seek Aadhaar numbers from new subscribers.

As the Aadhaar's constitutional validity has been upheld, "I am personally, extremely happy, because I have been a part of this journey... In its initial days, for four years, I worked with this (Aadhaar)...," he said speaking at the Annual General Meeting of Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association here.

Sharma's statement assumes significance as he has been a staunch supporter of Aadhaar and the safety of data collected.

He also got involved in a controversy when he revealed his Aadhaar number on Twitter in July and challenged Aadhaar critics to harm him using the number.

Following that, the Unique Identification Authority of India had to urge people to refrain from revealing Aadhaar numbers on social networking sites.