SC drops March 31 deadline

The Supreme Court extended indefinitely the March 31 deadine for mandatory linkage of Aadhaar with bank accounts, mobile phones and other government services, except for giving subsidies.

The interim order will remain in force till the fivejudge Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra gives its judgment on petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Aadhaar. It means a new deadline will have to be fixed after the judgment as the Court further extended the deadline of March 31 that it had fixed on December 15.

If you have not linked your Aadhaar with your mobile number or bank accounts yet, this comes as a relief to wait for the new deadline that will come after the Court rules on the validity of the 12-digit unique identity number.

The order came after the Bench heard a clutch of pleas for stay on the government’s decision to mandatory linking of Aadhaar with welfare schemes as also the essential services like banking and phones.

As the issue of passports came up in the hearing before the court, it said, “The government cannot insist on mandatory Aadhaar even for issue of Tatkal passport.”

The government cannot insist for mandatory Aadhaar, except where subsidy is to be given, the Court ruled. It said Aadhaar will be necessary for social schemes.

The court order came after Attorney General KK Venugopal told it that the Centre is not opposed to extending the deadline as it did in the past. “If required, we can do it again,” he said.

Meanwhile, govt sources said a very large number of people have already linked their mobile numbers, bank accounts, PAN cards and voter IDs with Aadhaar as required under the KYC provision which is being followed to eliminate bogus names and hence the government sees an unnecessary fuss over privacy violations.