Supreme Court extends all Aadhaar deadlines to March 31

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has extended the deadline for Aadhaar linkage with bank accounts and all social welfare schemes of the departments of the Central and state government until 31 March 2018.

Further the court extended the date for the completion of the linkage of Aadhaar and E-KYC process in respect of mobile phone subscribers until March 31 as against February 6, 2018 proposed by the government.

Giving this direction a five judge Constitution Bench comprising of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.K. Sikri, A.M. Kanwilkar, D.Y. Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan said, “as far as Aadhaar linkage with bank accounts is concerned, for existing bank accounts, the last date for the completion of the process is extended to 31 March 2018.”

Passing interim orders on a batch of petitions questioning the validity of the Aadhaar law, the Bench said “insofar as new bank accounts are concerned, the Bench extended the deadline till March 31, subject to the submission of the details in regard to the filing of an application for an Aadhaar card and the furnishing of the application number to the account opening bank.”.

The court made it clear that the extension of the last date for Aadhar linkage to 31 March 2018 shall apply, besides the schemes of the departments of the Union government to all state governments in similar terms. In passing these directions the court accepted the submissions of the attorney general K.K. Venugopal in this regard.

Regarding linking of PAN card with Aadhaar, the Bench clarify that in so far as the provisions of Section 139 AA of the Income Tax Act, 1961 are concerned, the matter stands governed by the judgment of this Court upholding the provision. While posting the matter for final hearing of the petitions in January, the Bench also said that this arrangement should continue to operate pending the disposal of the proceedings before the Constitution Bench.

The petitioners argued that Aadhaar Cards could be utilised only for six schemes as approved by the Constitution bench in earlier orders.

They wanted the court to direct the Centre to strictly follow these orders. Further they insisted that the Aadhaar card scheme was to be purely voluntary and could not be made mandatory until this Court finally decides the matter.

On the other hand, Mr K K Venugopal, the Attorney General urged that the interim directions were issued by the Constitution Bench in the absence of a legislative framework. After Parliament has enacted the Aadhaar Act, 2016 (which came into force on 12 July 2016) the interim orders would, in his submission, not pose any impediment to enforcing the provisions of the law, duly enacted. Moreover, the reasonableness of each notification would have to be justified by the department concerned.

The Bench said “having due regard to the importance of the issues which have been raised in the case, which has led to the judgment of nine Judges of this Court on 24 August 20171, we are of the considered view that the resolution of the issues raised before the Court should proceed at the earliest, after the Court reassembles in January 2018. This will ensure clarity for citizens on the one hand and for the Union and the state governments and the instrumentalities on the other hand.” The Bench posted the matters for final hearing on January 17, 2018.