Narendra Modi government on Friday gave an advance new year's gift to the citizens. The government has extended the current deadline for linking Aadhaar card with Permanent Account Number (PAN). Earlier, the citizens were supposed to link their Aadhaar with PAN till December 31, 2017.
But now, the government in its notification has said, "It has come to notice that some of the taxpayers have not yet completed the linking of PAN with Aadhaar. Therefore, to facilitate the process of linking, it has been decided to further extend the time for linking of Aadhaar with PAN."
The deadline has been extended now to March 31, 2018.
"In view of the difficulties faced by some of the taxpayers in the process, the date for linking of Aadhaar with PAN was initially extended till 31st August, 2017 which was further extended upto 31st December, 2017", the government notification read.
Attorney General K K Venugopal told a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra the deadline to link Aadhaar number with mobile phones could not be extended beyond February 6, 2018, since the order was imposed by the top court in another PIL.
The top law officer's submission came on the heels of a mentioning made in the Aadhaar matter before a bench that also comprised justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud.
The bench then said it would set up a Constitution bench to hear petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar Act next week. At the same time, it would also decide on other related notifications issued by the Centre and see whether any interim orders need to be passed.
Representing a batch of petitioners opposing Aadhaar, senior advocate Shyam Divan requested a direction seeking no coercive action against those who have not yet submitted their unique 12-digit identity number and a stay on the enrollment process.
Venugopal, however, opposed the move and submitted that the Centre was ready to defend their pet project. "There cannot be a stay on the Aadhaar scheme that has gone on for years," he said.
The top law officer then added that a committee involved in bringing out a Data Protection law, headed by former SC judge BN Srikrishna, was likely to submit its final report by February.
Earlier in August this year, a nine-judge Constitution bench declared the right to privacy a fundamental right and said that individual cases challenging Aadhaar would be separately decided by a five-judge Constitution bench.
On October 30, the bench said it would hear the Aadhaar matter in November, almost five years after the first plea was filed. Several petitions in this matter have been pending since the top court referred the matter to a larger bench nearly two years ago.
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 "Modi govt extends deadline for linking Aadhaar with PAN till March 2018")
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