Concerns over stringent penalties under the Prevention of Money Laundering Rules for not linking Aadhaar with bank accounts saw the Centre seeking four days from the Supreme Court to consider suggestions to dispense with coercive methods to bring about the linkage.
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Attorney general K K Venugopal informed a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud on Wednesday that the Centre has decided to extend till March 31 the December 31 deadline for mandatory Aadhaar for availing benefits under government-run social welfare schemes, including ration under the public distribution system. Until March 31, no benefit will be denied for want of Aadhaar, he said.
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But petitioners' advocates Shyam Divan, Anand Grover and Meenakshi Arora launched a counter-offensive and accused the Centre of employing coercive methods under PMLA rules to force citizens to link bank accounts and mobile phones with their Aadhaar numbers.
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Divan said, "On one hand the government says it would not take coercive action to force citizens to link their Aadhaar with social welfare schemes. But on the other hand, it says the extension of the deadline is to enable those who do not have Aadhaar to enrol for it. Surprisingly, at the same time, it is ready to invoke money laundering penal provisions if one does not link a bank account with Aadhaar."
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He said the validity of Aadhaar needs to be decided expeditiously as the Central Board of Secondary Education was demanding Aadhaar to issue hall tickets to students for Class 12 board examination. "If CBSE says no hall ticket without Aadhaar number, then it amounts to coercing students to part with their biometrics. Imagine school children having to part with their fingerprints like prisoners."
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Venugopal contested this strongly and said a nine-judge constitution bench, while ruling on August 24 that right to privacy was a fundamental right and part of right to life, had stressed on robust data protection regime for safeguarding citizens' biometrics and taken note of the Centre's decision to appoint a committee headed by retired SC judge B N Srikrishna to study various issues relating to data protection and suggest a robust data protection regime as well as necessary changes in the Aadhaar Act and Information Technology Act in this regard.
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When the CJI and Justice Khanwilkar were impressing upon petitioners' counsel that no urgent hearing on petitions was needed, Justice Chandrachud said, "The government has told us that they have initiated steps for a robust data protection regime. It is not an easy thing to formulate..." With petitioners remaining adamant on an early hearing, Venugopal said the government had no objection if a constitution bench heard and expeditiously decided the validity of Aadhaar.
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He also told the court that he would take instruction from the Centre whether those who have Aadhaar and are not linking it with social welfare schemes, bank accounts and mobile numbers would face any difficulty.On August 24, Justice Chandrachud, writing the main judgment in right to privacy, had said, "In a social welfare state, the government embarks upon programmes which provide benefits to impoverished and marginalised sections of society."