SC order today, govt says can defer deadline for all

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will pronounce on Friday its order on several petitions seeking an interim stay on government directives making Aadhaar mandatory for various schemes and services.

A five-judge bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra concluded the hearing on Thursday during which attorney general KK Venugopal said the government has extended the deadline for linking the 12-digit unique identity number to various services from December 31 to March 31, 2018.

On giving an extension to link mobile phones to Aadhaar, Venugopal said the government was willing to extend the deadline from February 6, 2018 subject to the court’s order.

The Centre has referred to an earlier SC verdict to make Aad- haar mandatory for mobile phones, saying the top court had directed it to verify all mobile connections through Aadhaar.

The government is pushing for wide use of Aadhaar which it says is necessary to plug leakages and corruption in various welfare schemes and for national security.

Critics and activists say the biometric identify number is an infringement of privacy as the ID card links enough data to create a full profile of a person’s spending habits, their friends, property they own and a trove of other information.

THE CENTRE HAS TOLD THE TOP COURT IT IS WILLING TO EXTEND THE DEADLINE FOR LINKING MOBILE PHONES FROM FEB 6 TO MARCH 31