‘Cannot make it mandatory for availing welfare schemes’

Countering the government push to make Aadhaar compulsory for access to social welfare schemes, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said obtaining the 12-digit Unique Identification number, which requires the holder to part with his personal bio-metric data, and using it to avail himself of government subsidy was a voluntary exercise.

The court’s observations follows a series of recent government circulars making Aadhaar mandatory to access welfare schemes like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and Employees Pension Scheme. The government has made Aadhaar compulsory for beneficiaries, many from the poorest of the poor, despite a Constitution Bench of the court directing the government in October 2015 that a citizen cannot be compelled to have Aadhaar as a pre-condition to access Centrally sponsored welfare schemes.

In short, the court had made it clear that the government was not free to discriminate between a person who has the Aadhaar card and one who does not.

However, a Bench led by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar on Tuesday found no fault with the government’s choice to make Aadhaar mandatory for “non-welfare” activities like opening a bank account or filing Income Tax returns or applying for a mobile connection. The recently-passed Finance Bill made Aadhaar mandatory for filing tax returns and getting a permanent account number (PAN). The court’s observations came during a mentioning for an early date for hearing pending petitions raising the issue of Aadhaar as a violation of the citizen's privacy. The court, however, did not agree for an out-of-turn hearing.