SC order on interim relief on mandatory linking of Aadhaar on Friday

New Delhi, Dec 14 (IANS) The Supreme Court will on Friday pronounce its order on the plea for interim relief on a batch of petitions seeking stay of various Central and state government notifications mandating the linking of Aadhaar with various schemes including taking exam by the students, availing scholarship, cremation and treatment of HIV positive patients.

The government has already issued 139 notifications mandating the linking of Unique identification Number with various schemes including MNREGA, old age pension scheme, provident fund and Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan Yojana.

Reserving the order after the hearing spread over three and half hours on Thursday, the five judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said that the regular hearing on the batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Aadhaar being violative of right to privacy would commence on January 10, 2018.

The court indicated that it will address the government plea for mandatory linking of Aadhaar with the opening of new bank accounts in its order to be pronounced on Friday.

As Attorney General K.K.Venugopal insisted that linking of Aadhaar with the opening of new banks accounts should be allowed, the counsel for petitioners said that if in the last seven decades, the system of introduction by an existing account holder has worked, heavens would not fall if it continues for another three months.

The court is also likely to pass order extending February 6 deadline for the linking of mobile numbers with Aadhaar to March 31.

The government has already extended December 31 deadline on the linking Aadhaar with the existing bank accounts till March 31.