SC refuses interim order against Centre's notification on Aadhaar

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to pass any interim order against the Centre’s notification which has made aadhaar card mandatory for availing benefits under social welfare schemes.

A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and Navin Sinha refused to acknowledge petitioner Shanta Sinha’s counsel and senior advocate Shyam Divan's arguments which said that by making Aadhaar mandatory, government would deprive the children of the mid-day meal scheme.

Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing on Centre's behalf, also informed the bench that the government has already extended the deadline for getting Aadhaar from June 30 to September 30.

Divan vehemently argued that the extension granted by Centre cannot only be for people who don't have Aadhaar and said, “Nobody should be forced to show their Aadhaar for deriving benefits.”

The bench however said, “The state is a democratic welfare state which is saying that we are not depriving anyone of benefits. Alternative IDs are valid at this moment, so no need to pass interim orders.”

The bench also referred to the June 9 judgement passed by another bench of the court which had upheld the validity of an Income Tax Act provision making Aadhaar mandatory for allotment of PAN cards and filing of tax returns, but had put a partial stay on its implementation till a Constitution bench addressed the issue of right to privacy. The court will now fix the case for further hearing on July 7.

The court was hearing three separate petitions, challenging government's notification on making Aadhaar mandatory for availing benefits of various social welfare schemes.

The Centre had on June 9 told the apex court that around 95.10% of the entire population has voluntarily registered for Aadhaar and apprehension of "large-scale exclusion" of citizens from government benefits due to lack of unique number was "misplaced" and "unfounded".

The Centre had said that in 2014-16, the government's savings through Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme on account of Aadhaar was Rs 49,560 crore.

The Centre had on May 19, refused to extend the June 30 deadline for making Aadhaar mandatory for availing social scheme benefits.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi had said "there is no question" of extending it and added that the idea behind making Aadhaar mandatory for welfare schemes was that the benefit should not go to "ghosts" as was noticed in schemes like the public distribution system (PDS).