Deadline to link Aadhaar extended by three months
NEW DELHI: The government on Wednesday extended until June 30 the deadline for linking Aadhaar numbers with welfare schemes in which benefits are transferred to citizens from the Consolidated Fund of India.
An office memorandum of the ministry of electronics and information technology, issued on December 7 last year, said the linking must be done by March 31. The fresh memorandum on Wednesday referred to the earlier order and said the deadline now may be read as June 30.
The Supreme Court had on Tuesday declined to issue any direction to extend the deadline.
A plea was made before a Constitution bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra after the CEO of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Ajay Bhushan Pandey, told the court that 88% of those eligible for benefits had authenticated their Aadhaar numbers.
Senior advocate KV Vishwanathan, appearing for one of the petitioners, said it meant 12% had not, and argued that almost 140 million citizens would be denied benefits and services linked with the 12-digit unique identity number. He urged the bench to extend the deadline for linking of Aadhaar for welfare schemes.
But the bench said it would not pass an order, though it said Vishwanathan could present his argument in a rejoinder submission.
On March 13, the top court had extended the March 31 deadline for linking Aadhaar numbers with bank accounts and mobile phones until a verdict was given
in a bunch of cases challenging Aadhaar’s validity being heard by the Constitution bench.
Advocate Vipin Nair, a lawyer for another petitioner in Aadhaar case, said Wednesday’s government order was necessary because not extending the deadline for social welfare schemes would “alienate” those living in the rural areas.
“The Supreme Court had allowed an indefinite extension for linking Aadhaar to mobile phones and bank accounts, but the same was not extended for welfare schemes under section 7, which includes MNREGA (rural employment guarantee scheme), cash transfer for food security, and benefits under the mid-day meal scheme,” he said.
“The extension of deadline for linking of Aadhaar for welfare schemes is a right step in the right direction as the Supreme Court is yet to rule on the whole Aadhaar issue,” said Pavan Duggal a Supreme Court advocate and an expert on cyber laws. We have seen various political arrangements that never managed to bring any qualitative change. This federal front is not a mere coalition of a few political parties but the idea is to tell the people that it is possible to bring some serious, effective and qualitative change in the country. If to this date, the country doesn’t have any programme to provide safe drinking water to the people, what have we achieved? We were a power deficit state three years ago and now we have surplus electricity. In three to four years, we will be able to supply power to half of south India and the rest of north India. If a state with a limited budget can plan, execute and deliver, why can’t the nation with unlimited resources do it? There are core issues that the country needs to look into again. KCR sir (Telangana CM) is preparing an agenda for this federal front and, once finalised, it’ll be shared with leaders of other parties. The fundamental issue of this front is that neither the Con- We are a new state and we (TRS) ought to have a cordial working relationship with any party that is in power at the Centre. Our primary agenda is to work for the development of Telangana. It is incidental that the BJP is at the Centre, so we are friendly with it. On demonetisation and goods and services tax (GST), our leader (KCR) believed that such initiatives will work for the nation provided other supplementary steps were taken, but that didn’t happen and that’s why these steps failed to give the desired results. TRS has supported the BJP on issues of national interest because it is a Union government and not a BJP government. The Telangana CM is a forward-looking person who wants to see the entire country progress. That is absolutely false. From day one, TRS members have been protesting in the Well of Sharad Pawarji is a very senior leader and we certainly respect his idea. But Congress is not bigger than any regional party today. To be called a national party, it has to have a pan-india presence. In many states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, regional parties are bigger and stronger than Congress. Both the Congress and the BJP don’t matter to us because they don’t represent our regional aspirations. If you call yourself a national party, you should react out to each and every state and its issues. Now, when Telangana members have been in the Well for 15 days, why doesn’t Congress president You never know. Politics is very surprising and interesting as well.