Shillong, Aug. 28: Doubt have risen among the citizens in Meghalaya over the ongoing Aadhaar enrolment after the Supreme Court held that the right to privacy is a fundamental right.

However, the Meghalaya government maintained that the enrolment would continue as scheduled, while also awaiting further instructions from the Centre as well as the Supreme Court.

Additional chief secretary, P.W. Ingty, who is the state nodal officer (census operations and national population register), told The Telegraph today that the enrolment would continue in the state, and the same would also start in more districts.

"While continuing with the Aadhaar enrolment, we are also waiting for further instructions from the Centre as well as from the apex court on the issue," he said.

Ingty said because of shortage of Aadhaar enrolment kits and manpower, the progress was on in a few districts like East Khasi Hills, West Khasi Hills and West Garo Hills of the total 11 in the state.

"We expect that other districts will join the enrolment process soon," Ingty said, adding that so far, over three lakh citizens have been enrolled for Aadhaar.

The enrolment for Aadhaar in Meghalaya picked up in May after the Centre made the 12-digit unique identification number mandatory to avail of certain services and benefits.

The process to enrol the residents biometrically for Aadhaar was to start in Meghalaya in 2013. But it did not because of opposition from various groups.

Enrolment for Aadhaar was first introduced in East Khasi Hills.

The government signed an agreement with Avvas Infotech, a Hyderabad-based IT consultancy services company, in April for Aadhaar enrolment in the state.

"The enrolment is being conducted according to the masterplan of the district administration and the availability of manpower," Ingty said.

Avvas Infotech was tasked to complete Aadhaar enrolment by June 2018.

The Meghalaya Peoples' Committee on Aadhaar, in the meantime, has expressed its appreciation to the nine-judge constitutional bench of the apex court for having come out with a "unanimous and historic" ruling that the right to privacy is a fundamental right.

The committee urged all concerned and at various levels of authority not to breach upon the right of privacy of each and every individual while attempting to get maximum number of persons for Aadhaar enrolment during a given period of time.

The statement said the apex court's ruling would serve as the base for deciding the pending litigation against Aadhaar and the enrolment tactics as modalities adopted at present are "very suspicious" so as not to appear to breach the interim order passed by the Supreme Court in that Aadhaar enrolment must be voluntary and not mandatory.

"The ruling has, thus, overruled its own eight-judge bench and six-judge bench judgments delivered in 1954 and 1961 respectively, which then ruled that privacy is not protected under the Constitution," the statement said.

"As we have received the ruling on the right to privacy, we are hoping for a similar ruling on Aadhaar enrolment and registration," the statement added.