A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court today accepted the Central government’s March 31, 2018 deadline for linkage of Aadhaar with various schemes..The Court has also extended the deadline for linkage of Aadhaar with mobile numbers and new bank accounts to March 31..In its order, the Bench clarified that the deadline for Aadhaar based E-KYC verification for mobile phone subscribers, as well as those opening new bank accounts, would be extended to March 31. Those opening new accounts would have to provide proof of Aadhaar enrolment to the bank at the time of applying for a new bank account..The five-judge Bench of Chief Dipak Misra and Justices AK Sikri, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan yesterday reserved its order in a plea for interim relief sought by the petitioners challenging the scheme..Last month, a Division Bench of the Court had directed all mobile service providers and bank companies to issue a last date by which Aadhaar must be linked to user accounts..The Centre had submitted an affidavit stating that Rule 2(b) of the Prevention of Money Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Second Amendment Rules, 2017 requires Aadhaar for opening new bank accounts and verification of existing accounts. The date for doing has been extended to March 31, 2018. The Bench had subsequently asked the counsel for the petitioner to approach the Constitution Bench with their issues..Yesterday, a battery of Senior Advocates, including Gopal Subramanium, Meenakshi Arora, KV Viswanathan, Arvind Datar, KTS Tulsi, Anand Grover, Sajan Poovayya, Sanjay Hegde as well as Advocate Prashant Bhushan, argued against the Aadhaar scheme..The primary contention of the counsel for the petitioners was that the Centre was obligated to seek a variation of the interim directions passed by the Supreme Court after the enactment of the Aadhaar Act, before making it mandatory to provide details of the Unique Identification Number/Aadhaar card for all purposes..Attorney General for India KK Venugopal countered by submitting that the interim directions were issued in the absence of a legislative framework, and that after Parliament enacted the Aadhaar Act, the interim orders would not pose any impediment to enforcing the provisions of the law. Senior Advocates Aryama Sundaram and Rakesh Dwivedi appeared for UIDAI..The Court addressed four issues in its interim order today..Aadhaar linkage with all schemes of its Ministries/Departments – Deadline of March 31, 2018 as stated by Attorney General accepted.Aadhaar linkage with existing bank accounts – Accepted Attorney General’s submission that the deadline stands extended till March 31.Aadhaar linkage for new bank accounts – subject to the submission of the details in regard to the filing of an application for an Aadhaar card and the furnishing of the application number to the account opening bank, we likewise extend the last date for the completion of the process of Aadhaar linking of new bank accounts to 31 March 2018.Aadhaar based E-KYC for mobile phone subscribers – Deadline extended from February 6 to March 31.Aadhaar PAN linkage – to be governed by the judgment of the Supreme Court in Binoy Viswom v Union of India..Further, the Court also ordered that the deadline of March 31 shall apply even with respect to schemes of State governments..“Consistent with the above directions, we also direct that the extension of the last date for Aadhar linkage to 31 March 2018 shall apply, besides the schemes of the Ministries/Departments of the Union government to all state governments in similar terms. As a consequence of the extension of the deadline to 31 March 2018, it is ordered accordingly.”.The Court held,.“Having due regard to the importance of the issues which have been raised in the case, which has led to the judgment of nine Judges of this Court on 24 August 2017, we are of the considered view that the resolution of the issues raised before the Court should proceed at the earliest, after the Court reassembles in January 2018. This will ensure clarity for citizens on the one hand and for the Union and the state governments and the instrumentalities on the other hand.”.Final hearing in the batch of petitions challenging various aspects of the scheme will commence on January 17, 2018..Read the order:
A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court today accepted the Central government’s March 31, 2018 deadline for linkage of Aadhaar with various schemes..The Court has also extended the deadline for linkage of Aadhaar with mobile numbers and new bank accounts to March 31..In its order, the Bench clarified that the deadline for Aadhaar based E-KYC verification for mobile phone subscribers, as well as those opening new bank accounts, would be extended to March 31. Those opening new accounts would have to provide proof of Aadhaar enrolment to the bank at the time of applying for a new bank account..The five-judge Bench of Chief Dipak Misra and Justices AK Sikri, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan yesterday reserved its order in a plea for interim relief sought by the petitioners challenging the scheme..Last month, a Division Bench of the Court had directed all mobile service providers and bank companies to issue a last date by which Aadhaar must be linked to user accounts..The Centre had submitted an affidavit stating that Rule 2(b) of the Prevention of Money Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Second Amendment Rules, 2017 requires Aadhaar for opening new bank accounts and verification of existing accounts. The date for doing has been extended to March 31, 2018. The Bench had subsequently asked the counsel for the petitioner to approach the Constitution Bench with their issues..Yesterday, a battery of Senior Advocates, including Gopal Subramanium, Meenakshi Arora, KV Viswanathan, Arvind Datar, KTS Tulsi, Anand Grover, Sajan Poovayya, Sanjay Hegde as well as Advocate Prashant Bhushan, argued against the Aadhaar scheme..The primary contention of the counsel for the petitioners was that the Centre was obligated to seek a variation of the interim directions passed by the Supreme Court after the enactment of the Aadhaar Act, before making it mandatory to provide details of the Unique Identification Number/Aadhaar card for all purposes..Attorney General for India KK Venugopal countered by submitting that the interim directions were issued in the absence of a legislative framework, and that after Parliament enacted the Aadhaar Act, the interim orders would not pose any impediment to enforcing the provisions of the law. Senior Advocates Aryama Sundaram and Rakesh Dwivedi appeared for UIDAI..The Court addressed four issues in its interim order today..Aadhaar linkage with all schemes of its Ministries/Departments – Deadline of March 31, 2018 as stated by Attorney General accepted.Aadhaar linkage with existing bank accounts – Accepted Attorney General’s submission that the deadline stands extended till March 31.Aadhaar linkage for new bank accounts – subject to the submission of the details in regard to the filing of an application for an Aadhaar card and the furnishing of the application number to the account opening bank, we likewise extend the last date for the completion of the process of Aadhaar linking of new bank accounts to 31 March 2018.Aadhaar based E-KYC for mobile phone subscribers – Deadline extended from February 6 to March 31.Aadhaar PAN linkage – to be governed by the judgment of the Supreme Court in Binoy Viswom v Union of India..Further, the Court also ordered that the deadline of March 31 shall apply even with respect to schemes of State governments..“Consistent with the above directions, we also direct that the extension of the last date for Aadhar linkage to 31 March 2018 shall apply, besides the schemes of the Ministries/Departments of the Union government to all state governments in similar terms. As a consequence of the extension of the deadline to 31 March 2018, it is ordered accordingly.”.The Court held,.“Having due regard to the importance of the issues which have been raised in the case, which has led to the judgment of nine Judges of this Court on 24 August 2017, we are of the considered view that the resolution of the issues raised before the Court should proceed at the earliest, after the Court reassembles in January 2018. This will ensure clarity for citizens on the one hand and for the Union and the state governments and the instrumentalities on the other hand.”.Final hearing in the batch of petitions challenging various aspects of the scheme will commence on January 17, 2018..Read the order:
