The Bench was referring to an order passed by the Apex Court last month that found nothing wrong to make Aadhaar mandatory for opening bank accounts, getting mobile connections and passports but it did not include it to get PAN cards or various welfare benefits given by the government.
New Delhi : An angry Supreme Court on Friday pulled up the Centre for making the Aadhaar card mandatory for getting PAN card and filing of the Income Tax returns when it had already passed an order that it cannot do it.
“How can you make Aadhar card mandatory when we have passed an order to make it optional,” asked a Bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan and fixed a hearing in the matter on Tuesday to examine its constitutional validity when Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi claimed it were the “only option” to curb people acquiring multiple PAN (permanent account number) cards using fake documents to divert black money to shell companies.
The Bench was referring to an order passed by the Apex Court last month that found nothing wrong to make Aadhaar mandatory for opening bank accounts, getting mobile connections and passports but it did not include it to get PAN cards or various welfare benefits given by the government.
When the Attorney General pointed out that a person can hold only on PAN card that there were instances of one having a score of PAN card to transfer money through banks, an annoyed Justice Sikri asked: “Is this the only remedy you can conceive? Why did you make it mandatory.”
The Attorney General tried to draw a parallel, citing the Court’s order allowing Aadhaar to have a check on the people procuring SIM cards for mobile phones on the fake identity card. Not satisfied, the Court fixed full-fledged hearing on April 25.
Through an amendment in the Finance Bill for 2017-18 passed by Parliament early this month, 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.
Senior advocates Shyam Divan and Arvind Datar appearing for the petitioners, including a former judge of Karnataka High Court, said it is extremely difficult to follow the new rule as many people don’t have Aadhaar card and there is a constant mismatch of individual details in an Aadhaar card and the PAN card.
