HC RELIEF FOR MAN WHO FAILED TO LINK AADHAAR WITH BANK A/C

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court (HC) has granted interim relief to an employee of the Mumbai Port Trust (MBPT) from being compelled to link his Aadhaar card details to his bank account. The employee approached the HC after the MBPT withheld his salary since July 2016 for not linking his Aadhaar to his bank account.

The employee referred to the Supreme Court order that did away with the rule under which MBPT forced its employees to do the linking from December 2015 to February 2016. The petitioner said as linking was not mandatory, MBPT could not hold back his salary for non-compliance of its 2015 circular. The HC accepted the petitioner’s contentions and issued notices to the financial and accounts office to explain its stand on December 8.

A division bench of justices AS Oka and SS Shinde was hearing the writ petition of Ramesh Kurhade, an electrician with the MBPT since 1997. Kurhade through his advocate informed the court that a circular was issued in 2015, which made it mandatory for all MBPT employees to link Aadhaar card details with their bank account to ensure their salaries continued to be deposited in their account. The petition further stated that while all employees had complied, he along with four other employees had not complied. The salaries of the five employees had not been paid since July 2016.

The bench partly accepted the submissions of Kurhade and issued notices to the authorities to respond and placed the matter for hearing on December 8.