Supreme Court on Aadhaar
Linking Aadhaar with the bank and mobile number is not required stated the Supreme Court on Wednesday, September 26, 2018.
But the court also added that it is mandatory to have a Permanent Account Number (PAN) and for linking PAN, Aadhaar number is required.
Permanent Account Number (PAN) Card holds a 10-digit alphanumeric number issued by the Income Tax Department to judge the Tax that needs to be paid by the people.
Even for filling the income tax returns, PAN is required.
“For opening a bank A/C Aadhaar is not needed and Aadhaar card cannot be demanded by any mobile company for connections”, the Court said, announcing its verdict on the batch of a petition challenging the constitutional validity of Aadhaar.
According to Section 57, earlier any private company could seek the Aadhaar details from the consumers but the court yesterday struck down this section of the Aadhaar Act.
Now no telecom service providers can force its customers to link their current mobile number to Aadhaar card as per the judgment.
There is a list of things which doesn’t require Aadhaar anymore.
Not only bank A/C but for SIM card, School admissions, examination such as NEET, CBSE, UGC now Aadhaar card is not required.
By the CJI, the bench headed included Justices AK Sikri, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud, and Ashok Bhushan.
There was a number of pleas challenging the constitutional validity of Aadhaar and it’s enabling Act.
The Aadhaar scheme is violating the fundamental right of privacy and is unconstitutional was the main point of argument.
According to one of the former High Court judge KS Puttaswamy, there were around 31 petitions filed.
Shyam Divan, the counsel for the petitioners, pointed and questioned over the integrity of the process, information and pervasive violation of fundamental rights. ‘Death of citizens’ civil rights may be caused by the Aadhaar’ he said to the Court.
By stating, that it ensures that the benefits are distributed among the population in a proper manner and also deter siphoning of funds; the government and the UIDAI defended the scheme over every instance.
This verdict is considered to be a good move to protect the fundamental rights of the citizens as there will be no intervention in the privacy.
