In the appeal of Union of India & Ors. v. Dilip Kumar Rout & Ors., the Supreme has upheld Biometric Attendance at Accountant General’s Office and said that consent of employees is not mandatory in this scenario. In a judgment dated 29 October 2025, the Supreme Court upheld the introduction of a biometric attendance system at the Office of the Principal Accountant General (A&E), Odisha, holding that the measure is neither arbitrary nor unconstitutional merely because employees were not consulted prior to its implementation. The Court affirmed the right of the Union to enforce digital attendance mechanisms in public offices in furtherance of administrative efficiency, transparency, and discipline.
The appeal in Union of India & Ors. v. Dilip Kumar Rout & Ors. arose from challenges by employees who argued that the biometric attendance mandate infringed upon their constitutional rights and violated their service conditions due to lack of prior consultation. The High Court had interfered with the administrative decision, resulting in the Union approaching the Supreme Court. The bench underscored that public servants are subject to reasonable administrative controls and that no vested right exists to resist modern attendance-monitoring protocols aimed at ensuring accountability in public administration.
The Court noted that biometric systems constitute a rational mechanism for ensuring punctuality and integrity in attendance monitoring. It reiterated that there is no statutory or constitutional requirement mandating the government to secure prior employee consultation before implementing such administrative measures. The judgment emphasised that efficiency and probity in governance justify such technological interventions, and that administrative convenience and public interest outweigh individual discomfort, provided privacy safeguards are maintained under prevailing data-protection norms.
The Court, while dismissing the challenge, relied on the established jurisprudence that government offices enjoy wide latitude in regulating discipline and conditions of service in the workplace so long as such actions do not violate statutory provisions or fundamental rights. And the bench held that biometric attendance per se does not infringe privacy in view of the proportionality-based constitutional standards laid down in K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India, since the system involves no more than verification of attendance at the workplace and the implementation thereof is accompanied with reasonable data-security protections.
The judgment thus explained that service jurisprudence does not confer any right to opt out on the basis of inconvenience or alleged procedural lapses when attendance systems are modernized. Such technological governance reforms, the Court insisted, cannot be stalled either on speculative grounds or for administrative resistance, particularly in public offices entrusted with financial oversight and audit functions. Finding no infirmity in the biometric attendance mandate and noting the absence of any demonstrable prejudice to the employees, the Court restored the administrative circular. The judgment thus reiterates deference by the judiciary to executive policy in operational matters relating to public workforce governance, provided, of course, that constitutional safeguards are kept intact.
