The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre to submit a response on a plea challenging the mandatory linking of mobile phones with Aadhaar. Notices were also sent to telecom companies on the matter.

A bench of Justice AK Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan gave the Centre four-weeks' time to respond on the PIL filed by advocate Raghav Tankha.

The PIL sought a direction from the top court to stop telecom companies and Department of Telecom from misleading the public for validating their mobile phone connection and other forms of KYC verification. 

Meanwhile, the apex court also gave time to the West Bengal government to amend its petition questioning the linking of Aadhaar for giving of subsidy by the state's Labour Department. It observed: "how could the state government challenge a law passed by the Centre?"

The court said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee could challenge the Aadhaar law as an "individual" and a "citizen".

However, it also observed that "this way Centre would start challenging the laws passed by the States".

This comes after Attorney General KK Venugopal on Thursday, told a three-judge-bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra that the government would not take any coercive steps to force citizens to link their Aadhaar, but refused to give a written assurance on the same. The bench had asked Venugopal to come up with the Centre’s position on the matter on Monday. The case will be heard later in the day.

(With IANS inputs)