Aadhaar required for filing PILs in Madras High Court

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has directed the Court Registry to collect litigant’s Aadhaar card copy along with other documents at the time of filing PILs, reports PTI..The direction was issued by a Division Bench comprising Justices M Sathyanarayanan and R Hemalatha, citing instances of PILs being filed by fictitious persons that were brought to the notice of the Court..In case the petitioner has not applied for Aadhaar, the Registry has been directed to collect a copy of the petitioner’s ration card or voter’s identity card in its stead..The Court reportedly directed the same while dismissing a petition filed by one, Kandhasamy, which had sought the quashing of a Revenue notice for removing certain encroachments made on his property..As per the PTI report, the bench observed that the petitioner, who had filed a PIL earlier for removal of encroachments, had himself encroached and had not come with clean hands..Last year, the Punjab & Haryana High Court had issued a circular to all district and sessions courts in Punjab, Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh, directing them to collect the Aadhaar numbers of parties while entering cases in the court docket..Note: The article headline had wrongly mentioned “Aadhaar mandatory for filing PILs in Madras High Court”. It has been corrected on January 11, 2018 at 9.50 AM..Read Order.