Supreme Court has upheld a law making Aadhaar mandatory for PAN cards, Income Tax returns.

Aadhaar will be a must for filing Income Tax Returns from July 1, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said today. According to PTI, a partial relief has been given by the Supreme Court to those who do not have Aadhaar. Such PAN numbers will not be cancelled.

In a statement, CBDT said that Supreme Court on Friday had only given a “partial relief” to those who do not have an Aadhaar or an Aadhaar enrolment ID, and the taxman, hence, will not “cancel” their Permanent Account Number (PAN). Issuing a three- point “effect of the judgement” of the apex court, CBDT said, that from July 1, 2017 onwards every person eligible to obtain Aadhaar must quote their Aadhaar number or their Aadhaar enrolment ID number for filing of income tax returns as well as for applications for PAN.

“Everyone who has been allotted permanent account number as on the 1st day of July, 2017, and who has aadhaar number or is eligible to obtain Aadhaar number, shall intimate his Aadhaar number to income tax authorities for the purpose of linking PAN with Aadhaar,” it said.

On Friday, the apex court upheld the validity of the law making Aadhaar mandatory for allotment of Permanent Account Number(PAN) and filing of Income Tax(IT) returns but put a partial stay to exempt those without it for now until the larger privacy issue is decided.

The top court ruled that people, who do not have Aadhaar cards as of now can also file their returns. But it made clear that people possessing Aadhaar must link it to their Permanent Account Number(PAN). According to the government, over 95 per cent of the population – 115 crore – already have Aadhaar in country. People, who have enrolled and are yet to obtain their Aadhaar card, have been expempted from the mandatory linkage and the penalising invalidation of their PANs if they don’t link it.

As per Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act, quoting of Aadhaar or enrolment ID of Aadhaar application form for filing of IT returns and making application for allotment of PAN is compulsory with effect from July 1 this year.

The apex court on Friday upheld that the “Parliament was fully competent to enact Section 139AA of the Act and its authority to make this law was not diluted by the orders of this court”, the court said in its 157-page judgement that it did not find “any conflict between the provisions of Aadhaar Act and Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act inasmuch as when interpreted harmoniously, they operate in distinct fields”.

SC further said, “At this juncture, it is only emphasised that malafides cannot be attributed to this scheme.” (With PTI inputs)