AADHAAR Linking With Various Services Extended Indefinitely By Supreme Court

THE Constitution Bench of Supreme Court Of India says that Aadhaar will not be mandatory for services like banking, mobile phone connections and Tatkal passport till a decision is this regard taken is finally. The deadline for linking of various services with Aadhaar has also been extended indefinitely beyond March 31 by the Constitutional Bench headed by the Chief Justice of India Dipak Mishra. Aadhaar will be necessary only for social schemes said the country’s apex court .It is hearing a bunch of PILs challenging the validity of the 12-digit number. The five-judge Constitution Bench has also advised the Government not to insist for linking of Aadhaar with any other services except those mentioned by the court. The PILs contend that making Aadhaar linking mandatory for welfare schemes and financial transactions such as for obtaining loan or filing taxes is against the citizens’ fundamental rights as enshrined in the constitution and violates their right to  privacy. Petitioners have drawn the attention of the Supreme Court Of India to the reported repeated data breaches related Aadhaar card say the ID card links enough data to create a full profile of a person’s spending habits, their friends, family life, property they own and other personal information. The government has made it a policy decision to link Aadhaar with welfare schemes insisting that it was necessary to weed out benami deals and black money as part of series of schemes to root out corruption. The GOI has also proposed to link Aadhaar card with driving licences and voter ID cards. The 12- digit biometric card launched in 2009 is intended to streamline welfare payments and reduce waste of public funds. NDA Government is keen on use of Aadhaar for filing income tax, registration of mobile phone numbers and booking railway tickets. Aadhaar is now mandatory for welfare, pension and employment schemes.