Supreme Court pulls up govt on Aadhaar linkage

How can you make Aadhaar compulsory when we said it is optional, asks Apex court

​New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday questioned the Centre over making Aadhaar mandatory for procuring Permanent Account Number (PAN) cards.

"How can you make Aadhaar card mandatory when we have passed an order to make it optional?" asked the Supreme Court. Is making Aadhaar by force the only way to tackle fraud?" the bench of the Apex court led by Justice Sikri asked the Centre while hearing a PIL against the government's decision making Aadhaar compulsory.

The Centre's argument has been that the earlier order merely applies for beneficiary schemes like LPG and food grains and the government is free to use it for other services like income tax. The contention here is of reading the earlier order.

While the Centre is making case for a narrow reading of the order restricting it to essential services and beneficiary schemes, the petitioners have given the earlier order a broad reading.

The main matter in Aadhaar is pending on the question of the right to privacy. "We found a number of PAN cards being used to divert funds to shell companies. To prevent this, the only option is to make Aadhaar card mandatory," Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told the Supreme Court bench.

The Supreme Court had on March 27 made it clear that Aadhaar cards cannot be made mandatory by the government for extending benefits of social welfare schemes.

The top court, however, said the government cannot be barred from seeking these cards, which are issued by UIDAI, for "non-benefit" purposes like filing of IT returns and opening of accounts "The answer is this that for giving benefits of welfare schemes, it (Aadhaar) cannot be pressed.

They (government and its agencies) cannot be stopped from seeking Aadhaar for nonbenefit schemes like opening of bank accounts," a bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar had said.

The apex court on August 11, 2015 had said that Aadhaar cards will not be mandatory for availing benefits of government's welfare schemes and barred the authorities from sharing personal biometric data collected for enrolment under the scheme However, on October 15, 2015 it had lifted its earlier restriction and permitted the voluntary use of Aadhaar cards in welfare schemes that also included MGNREGA, all pension schemes and the provident fund besides ambitious flagship programmes like 'Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna' of the NDA government.

In its last order, the Supreme Court had said that Aadhaar cannot be made compulsory for government schemes as many people did not have Aadhaar cards. The apex court said it will hear the plea challenging the government's move on April 25.

Through an amendment to the tax proposals in the Finance Bill of the Budget for 2017-18, the government has made Aadhaar mandatory for filing income tax returns and provided for linking of PAN with Aadhaar to curb tax evasion through use of multiple PAN cards.