The Centre on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that it had spent Rs. 5000 crore of public money on the Aadhaar scheme and accessed 80 crore people.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said any move to scrap the scheme now would create a severe dent in several government welfare schemes, subsidies and services for which the Aadhaar card has become an essential document.

Attorney General also requested the court that this case be referred to a five-judge Constitution Bench as important constitutional issues were involved.

In March this year, the Supreme Court had confirmed that the Aadhaar card was not compulsory, and further, officials who insist on it would be taken to task.

A fuming Supreme Court had issued a stern warning to the government on learning that many government authorities still insisted on Aadhar for providing government subsidies and basic services to ordinary citizens.

A Bench of Justices J. Chelameswar, S.A. Bobde and C. Nagappan clarified that demands made by officials for Aadhar card were in clear violation of the Supreme Court's interim order of September 23, 2013.

In the 2013 order, the apex court had directed that “no person should suffer for not getting the Aadhaar card, inspite of the fact that some authority had issued a circular making it mandatory.”