The court in its 157-page judgment lamented that despite the fact that the government earmarked money for the socially and economically backward, it rarely reached its end user because of corruption.
Citizens who do not have an Aadhar card can breathe easy, for now. Though, the Supreme Court (SC) on Friday upheld the provision that was introduced in the recently-passed Finance Act, which made it mandatory for PAN (Permanent Account Number) card holders to submit their Aadhaar number for filing IT return, it said the government could not force people, who don’t have Aadhaar at the moment. The SC ruled that the relief would hold till the Constitution Bench decides the issue of concerns over privacy vis-a-vis Aadhaar.
“We make it clear that Constitutional validity of this provision is upheld subject to the outcome of a batch of petitions referred to the Constitution Bench where the said issue (Violation of the right to privacy) is to be examined,” the Bench said.
The court also underlined that a large section of citizens were concerned about possible data leak, even though many of those support the linkage of PAN with Aadhaar. The court observed that the Centre should address these concerns and emphasised certain measures.
The Bench also subtly endorsed the uselfulness of Aadhaar in checking curruption and pilferage from government-subsidised schemes.
The court in its 157-page judgment lamented that despite the fact that the government earmarked money for the socially and economically backward, it rarely reached its end user because of corruption.
“One of the main reasons is failure to identify these persons for a lack of means by which identity could be established of such genuine needy class. Resultantly, lots of ghosts and duplicate beneficiaries are able to take undue and impermissible benefits,” the Bench said. Justices Sikri and Bhushan also invoked former prime minister the late Rajiv Gandhi who had once said that out of one rupee spent by the government for the welfare of the downtrodden, only 15 paise thereof actually reach those persons for whom it is meant. “It cannot be doubted that with UID/Aadhaar much of the malaise in this field can be taken care of,” the apex court said.
Aadhaar -- which has come to be known as the most advanced and sophisticated infrastructure -- would not only check the issue of black money and the menace of corruption, but it would also “help facilitate the law enforcement agencies to take care of the problem of terrorism to some extent and it may also be helpful in checking the crime and also help the investigating agencies in cracking the crimes.”
Commenting on the fact that the issue of compulsiveness on the people to be covered by Aadhar was a question that needed to be addressed at a later stage, the court said that “at this juncture, it is only emphasised that malafides cannot be attributed to this scheme.”
The respite is partial since the SC upheld section 139AA of the Income Tax Act, which states that quoting the AadhAar number at the time of filing tax returns is mandatory. The court then stressed that those who have already enrolled for the scheme must comply with the rules and link their PAN cards with the Aadhar while filing their Income Tax (IT) returns.
Analysis
The SC made it clear that while Aadhaar is useful to check pilferage, citizens can’t be forced to get it.
With the court leaving the issue of privacy to the Constitutional bench, all eyes will now be on the latter.
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