No March 31 deadline, mandatory Aadhaar linking postponed till SC's final verdict

The extension for mandatory Aadhaar linking will not apply to availing services and subsidies.
No March 31 deadline, mandatory Aadhaar linking postponed till SC's final verdict
No March 31 deadline, mandatory Aadhaar linking postponed till SC's final verdict
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Bringing temporary relief to Indian residents, the Supreme Court on Tuesday announced that the deadline for linking mobile numbers and bank accounts has been extended till the top court decides delivers its judgment on a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Aadhaar.

The extension does not apply to those availing social schemes such as MGNREGA.

This deadline also been extended for those who apply for passports.

The order came as senior counsel Arvind Datar, appearing for one of the petitioners, told the court that passport issuing authorities have made submission of Aadhaar mandatory for issuance of passports. At this point, Attorney General KK Venugopal sought to clarify that this requirement of Aadhaar was only for issuance of 'tatkal' passports. The court order also extended the deadline for the issuance of passports.

A five-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan passed the interim order.

The Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, benefits and services) Act, 2016 is a money bill of the Parliament of India.

It was passed on 11 March 2016 by the Lok Sabha.  

It provides legal backing to the Aadhaar unique identification number project. 

In court on Tuesday, former Finance Minister and advocate P Chidambaram argued that a Bill which was passed wrongly as a Money Bill should be struck down immediately as Federalism is the basic feature of Constitution. A Money Bill, unlike any other bill, can be passed by the Lok Sabha alone. 

This was part of the court’s final hearing in the matter of K S Puttaswamy vs Union of India, along with 28 other petitions. 

The current deadline for linking of bank accounts, mobile phone connections, and other services with Aadhaar was March 31, and this had been extended by the apex court on December 15 last year. 

In August 2017, the right to privacy was upheld unanimously by a nine-judge bench in 2017. Privacy and denial of rights due to Aadhaar are two of the major considerations of the Aadhaar project.

There are many privacy concerns around Aadhaar, after a story was published in The Tribune. The reporter, Rachna Khaira, stated that she paid Rs 500 through Paytm, and in 10 minutes "an 'agent' of the group running the racket created a 'gateway' for this correspondent and gave a login ID and password. You could enter any Aadhaar number in the portal, and instantly get all particulars that an individual may have submitted to the UIDAI.

With IANS inputs

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