Supreme Court partially stays mandatory Aadhaar law

The Supreme Court partially stayed the making of Aadhaar mandatory for allotment of PAN cards, ITR. The bench asked the govt to take steps to ensure there was no leakage of data.

The Supreme Court on Friday put a partial stay on the implementation of the provisions in the Income Tax (I-T) Act making Aadhaar number mandatory for allotment of PAN card and filing of income tax returns (ITR).

However, the apex court upheld the validity of Section 139AA of the I-T Act, subject to the outcome of the batch of petitions before its Constitution bench which is examining if the Aadhaar scheme infringes on the Right to Privacy and if there is a threat of data leakage.

A bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan also upheld the legislative competence of Parliament in enacting the law to this effect. It also clarified that it has not touched upon the issue of Right to Privacy and other aspects that the Aadhaar scheme affects the human dignity, which has to be decided by the Constitution Bench.

The bench asked the government to take appropriate steps to ensure there was no leakage of data from the Aadhaar scheme. "The government to take proper and appropriate steps and the scheme in this regard has to be devised at the earliest till confidence among the citizens that the data would not be leaked," the bench said.

The Congress welcomed the Supreme Court order partially staying implementation of provisions in the Income Tax (I-T) Act making Aadhaar mandatory for allotment of PAN cards and filing of income tax returns (ITR).

"This is a welcome decision. Probably the highest court has realised that the privacy issue regarding individuals is very serious," Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan said.

He said the matter was still there in the constitutional bench for them to decide. Referring to Aadhaar card required for mid-day meals, he said that is an "overdrive" as there are other means to authenticate students.