Vidhi Centre of Legal Policy, an independent think tank funded by, among others, philanthropist Rohini Nilekani, received nearly Rs 50 lakh for helping formulate the Aadhaar Act 2016.

According to a reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on 23 March, the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology KJ Alphons said Vidhi was paid Rs 48,15,000 in the last five years.

Alphons said this in response to a question by Member of the House Husain Dalwai who asked the Ministry to disclose “individual fee payment details of expenditure” for receiving legal services from each legal policy group involved in formulating the Aadhaar Act, including the amount paid to Vidhi.

Vidhi’s role in helping formulate the Aadhaar Act if 2016 is well known and has often come under criticism for conflict of interest since it is funded by Rohini, who is married to Aadhaar architect Nandan Nilekani.

Vidhi’s founder and research director Arghya Sengupta is also one of the members of the Justice Srikrishna Committee, which is in the process of deciding a data protection framework for India.

Among others who have funded Vidhi are former Infosys chief financial officer TV Mohandas Pai, Ratan Tata Trusts, businesswoman Anu Aga, and Biocon Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar Shaw.

In his reply, MoS Alphons also said that the Unique Identification Authority of India, the agency that administers Aadhaar, is not being helped by any independent legal policy advisory groups for implementation of the Aadhaar Act.