The Aadhaar linking deadline, for which the Supreme Court refused to pass an interim order, has also been extended by 3 months to June 30. On Tuesday, the deadline for linking Aadhaar with Pan card was also extended to June 30. The Aadhaar matter is being currently heard in the Supreme Court over privacy and constitutionality issue. This move is a big relief to people who have not obtained or linked the Aadhaar card.
Welfare schemes are those where benefits are transferred to citizens from the Consolidated Fund of India. The Supreme Court on March 13 had extended the deadline for linking Aadhaar card for services such as bank accounts, phone numbers and tatkal passports infinitely, saying that the matter is sub-judice in court.
The five-judge constitution bench also said that the government cannot insist on linking Aadhaar with these services until there is a decision on various petitions challenging the validity of the biometric scheme and the enabling law. On Tuesday, the CBDT also extended the Aadhaar linking deadline for PAN until June 30. While linking Aadhaar with PAN is mandatory under the law, for other services it is not the case.
Last July, the Narendra government under Section 139 AA (2) of the Income Tax Act made it mandatory for every person having PAN as on July 1, 2017, and eligible to obtain Aadhaar, to mandatorily intimate his Aadhaar number to the tax authorities.
The 12-digit biometric identity project was conceptualised by Nandan Nilekani in 2008-2009 under the UPA-II regime. The present government took the project forward and pushed for a mandatory linking with an aim to weed out black money and to bring transparency in direct benefit transfer to poor and needy. However, concerns over privacy and data leak took the matter to court, where its fate currently hangs in balance. AGENCIES