Supreme Court blasts Centre over making Aadhaar mandatory, says it was supposed to be optional
The Supreme Court of
India lambasted the Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre for
making Aadhaar card a mandatory prerequisite to avail government services.
The government was told that the Aadhaar can only be an optional requirement,
as per the court's earlier ruling on the issue. The court was making
the observations while hearing a PIL filed against the government's decision of
making Aadhaar compulsary.
To this, the Centre
responded saying Pan cards were found to be misused, and the only option to
combat this problem was to make Aadhaar mandatory. "We found a number of
PAN cards were being used to divert funds to shell companies. To prevent it
(from happening), the only option was to make Aadhar card mandatory," said
Attorney General of India, Mukul Rohatgi, appearing in the Supreme Court on the
government's behalf.
Last month, the
government had said it is mandatory to
use one's Aadhaar card while filing Income Tax returns. The move was
purportedly part of the Centre's efforts to battle the menace of black money.
Aadhaar is also a must while applying for a Pan card. This apart, an Aadhaar
number has also become mandatory to
seek free gas connections under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala
Yojana. Those below poverty line (BPL) women looking to avail free LPG
connections but do not have the Aadhaar number, have been asked to apply for it
by 31 May.
The Supreme Court had
said in August 2015 that Aadhaar cards will not be mandatory for availing
benefits of government's welfare schemes, and had also barred authorities from
sharing personal biometric data collected for enrollment under the scheme.
http://www.firstpost.com/india/supreme-court-blasts-centre-over-making-aadhaar-mandatory-says-it-was-supposed-to-be-optional-3396326.htmlMore posts on Aadhaar