NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court directed banks and telecom service providers to alert subscribers about the last date to link their accounts and mobile phones with Aadhaar to prevent panic among users about accounts being frozen and phones being disconnected.The deadline for bank accounts may be extended to March 31 from the end of the year if the hearing of a constitution bench case on Aadhaar and privacy doesn’t end by then. The deadline for phones is February 6, the government said. Under the government’s new money laundering rules, Aadhaar is required for opening bank accounts. All existing accounts were to have been verified by December 31, failing which they will cease to be operational.“However, this date may be extended up to March 31, 2018. Therefore, until March 31, 2018, existing bank accounts will not be made non-operational for not linking with Aadhaar,” the government said in a counter-affidavit running into 1,163 pages. “No coercive action will be taken qua their bank accounts till March 31, 2018… But as far as opening of new accounts are concerned, Aadhaar or enrolment ID must be given as proof of identity.”Banks and telecom companies have been sending repeated reminders to people, the top court was told, prompting the bench to ask them to state the last date in their alerts to consumers.Senior advocates Shyam Divan, KV Vishwanath and Arvind P Datar said that the messages gave the impression that accounts and mobile connections would be immediately frozen. If the SMS alerts contained the deadline, people wouldn’t panic, the lawyers opposing Aadhaar argued.The top court, however, refused any other relief on the ground that it would be addressed by the constitution bench which will examine whether Aadhaar impinges on the fundamental right to privacy of citizens because of what is said to be its mandatory and intrusive nature by opponents. The hearing had been deferred till a ruling on the right to privacy. With the top court having ruled that citizens have a fundamental right to privacy, a five-judge bench will commence hearing petitions challenging Aadhaar’s mandatory nature.The government also said that Aadhaar would have to be provided to the prescribed authority for linking with permanent account numbers (PANs). It is a requirement for filing income tax returns as per a circular. Udayaditya Banerjee, lawyer for SG Vombatkere, who has opposed the PAN-Aadhaar link, said that though the court had in the Binoy Viswam judgement said that those who do not have it were not required to link it to PAN pending outcome of the challenge to Aadhaar, the government had made it mandatory for filing of IT returns.Datar, appearing for former IAS officer MG Devasahayam, wondered how the government could bring in such changes through the prevention of money laundering rules. He also argued that there was no need to link bank accounts with Aadhaar as banks had their own KYC (know your customer) norms.Under Rule 2(b) of the Prevention of Money-laundering (Maintenance of Records) Second Amendment Rules, 2017, Aadhaarhas been made mandatory for individual clients, companies, partnership firms and trusts for opening of bank accounts, maintaining existing accounts, making any financial transactions of and above Rs 50,000 and crediting foreign remittance into small accounts.At the outset, the attorney general said that the Aadhaar Act would be changed to reflect concerns about data protection once an expert committee came up with recommendations by March 31, 2018.He said that the government was willing to extend the deadline from December 31to March 31, 2018, should the final hearing not conclude by that date. As of now, the deadline isDecember 31 for getting Aadhaar and linking it with bank accounts, he said.