SC to hear plea, challenging Centre’s move to make Aadhaar mandatory for IT returns, today

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The Supreme Court will hear a plea challenging the government’s move to make Aadhaar mandatory on Wednesday, reported news agency ANI. Last week, the apex court had come down heavily on the Centre for making Aadhaar mandatory for filing income tax returns, asking it to justify its move. It referred to its August 2015 order, in which it had stated that the government’s unique identification programme is optional.

“How can you make Aadhaar card mandatory when we have passed an order to make it optional?” the top court said on Friday. In response, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi reasoned that it will prevent people from using Pan cards to divert funds to shell companies.

Read: Aadhaar data public on PM Awas Yojana, Gujarat govt department websites

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Rohatgi also referred to the recently-passed Finance Act, 2017, which states that from July 1 this year, Aadhaar will be mandatory to file returns and apply for a Permanent Account Number.

The Supreme Court’s hearing comes in the wake of several reports of Aadhaar information being leaked on government websites, including most recently, beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) being made public on the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation website.