Why is Aadhaar mandatory for PAN, SC asks govt
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court questioned on Friday the government’s decision to link people’s Aadhaar unique identification with their permanent account number (PAN), which is necessary to file income tax returns and make high-value transactions.
The top court had ruled before that Aadhaar, a biometric-based 12-digit unique identity number, wouldn’t be necessary for a host of services and welfare schemes, other than government benefits such as food under the public distribution scheme.
“How have you made Aadhaar mandatory despite our order saying it is optional? Don’t you have any other way to tackle fake identities?” a bench headed by Justice AK Sikri asked, and agreed to hear a petition challenging the government’s move.
The bench is expected to pass an order in the next hearing on April 25. The court’s remarks were in response to attorney general Mukul Rohatgi’s argument that the step was taken to weed out fake PAN cards used by unscrupulous people to launder ill-gotten money.
ATTORNEY GENERAL ROHATGI SAID AUTHORITIES HAVE FOUND THAT PEOPLE WERE GIVING DETAILS OF PAN CARDS PROCURED ON THE BASIS OF FAKE DOCUMENTS
Questioning the government over making Aadhaar mandatory for securing Permanent Account Number (PAN) card, necessary to fill IncomeTax returns, the Supreme Court agreed on a Friday to hear a petition challenging the move.
“How have you made Aadhaar mandatory despite our order saying it is optional. Don’t you have any other way to tackle fake identities?” a bench headed by justice AK Sikri asked Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi who defended the executive directive on the ground that it was to weed out fake PAN cards.
Rohatgi appeared before the bench even though there was no formal notice in the matter. After a brief hearing, the court fixed April 25 to hear the petition in detail and pass a final order.
Rohatgi said authorities have found that people were giving details of PAN cards that were procured on the basis of fake documents and that in several cases it was detected that one person has multiple PAN numbers, which are used to divert funds to shell companies.
To this, the bench asked the Attorney General, “Is this the remedy (to make Aadhaar mandatory)?”
Rohatgi said that people have been found to be procuring SIM cards for mobile phones on fake identity cards and the apex court had asked the government to keep a check on it.
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.
Denying that the modification in law is a violation of the top court’s order, the government has offered a restrictive meaning to it.
The Centre has said the Supreme Court order is meant only for social welfare schemes that will benefit the public. Services such as applying for driving licences or PAN cards do not fall within the ambit of the top court’s order.
The Supreme Court’s interim order making Aadhaar optional was issued two yeas ago on petitions challenging the policy to introduce the system of allocating a unique identification number to citizens.
Petitioners placed two-fold arguments - one, it was unconstitutional because there was no law to back it, and the second that it breached one’s privacy.
While the first argument was negated after the Centre brought in a legislation, the second one was referred to a larger bench to decide whether one could assert that the right to privacy was a fundamental right.