In the first part of this article titled “The (Anti) National Identity Card!” published a little more than a month ago on My Republica, I had argued how a Supreme Court (SC) interim order had come as a big relief for the general public. The apex court’s order had essentially stayed the government's decision to make the National Identity Card (NIC) mandatory to get various vital services from government as well as private institutions, until a final decision on the issue. I had also mentioned how these NICs were being printed in India and the USA by a French company. I had concluded the article with the belief that the 'stay of execution' by the Supreme Court had to function as a beacon of hope - a lifeboat in a sea of red tape - hoping that the court would keep this lifeboat afloat through the final verdict. After all, it was a joint bench of SC justices Manoj Kumar Sharma and Til Prasad Shrestha that had issued an interim order to the government not to make the NIC mandatory!
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