New Delhi : The Supreme Court today made it clear that Aadhaar cards cannot be made mandatory by the government for extending benefits of social welfare schemes. The apex court, however, said that the government cannot be barred from seeking these cards, which are issued by UIDAI, for "non-benefit" purposes like filing of IT returns and opening of accounts. "The answer is this that for giving benefits of welfare schemes, it (Aadhaar) cannot be pressed. They (government and its agencies) cannot be stopped from seeking aadhaar for non-benefit schemes like opening of bank accounts," a bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar said.
The bench, also comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and Sanjay Kishan Kaul, meanwhile, declined to fix a date of hearing on a batch of petitions challenging constitutional validity of Aadhaar on grounds including that it infringed Right to Privacy of citizens. "A seven-judge bench has to be constituted for this. At present it is not possible. There are three other matters which are to be heard by constitution benches. We have already taken a call. This matter is in my mind. We will hear the matter one after the other," it said. Senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for one of the petitioners, alleged that the Central government is not following the various orders passed by the apex court that the usage of Aadhaar would be voluntary and not mandatory.
He also referred to certain recent decisions of the government including making Aadhaar mandatory for issuance of driving licenses and filing of IT returns and by making the cards, issued by Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), mandatory, the government is committing "contempt of court"."The interim orders from time to time is not the solution. Final disposal of the matter is the solution," the bench said, adding various orders have already been passed that Aadhaar is not mandatory for taking benefits of welfare schemes. PTI
