Supreme Court Relaxes Aadhar-Pan Card Linking for Income Tax Returns

The Supreme Court of India today upheld the government’s decision to link Aadhar with PAN (Permanent Account Number) card but also gave relief to those who still don’t have one till their next order.

If you have Aadhar card and PAN card both what you need to do?

The SC has upheld the government’s decision to link Aadhar card with PAN card therefore you need to link them together. You can visit the income tax website and link both your identities. You can also link both of them in your bank account.

What Supreme Court Said while passing judgment?

The SC said that it stands with government’s decision to link Aadhar and PAN card to counter fake identities both in PAN and Ration Card. It also said that those who don’t have one till now can be given exemption till the court doesn’t give its final verdict. The court said that there would be severe consequences if the center invalidates PAN by making Aadhar mandatory in time of filing income tax returns.

What SC said on privacy issue?

SC said that article 21 on personal privacy doesn’t come in between in this and the constitution bench will decide on article 139A whether it is violating article 21 of the constitution or not. It also said that linking Aadhar with PAN doesn’t violate any law. SC also advised the government to make a scheme regarding the safety of privacy of citizens so that Aadhar information doesn’t get leaked from the government or the contractor agency.

What was Modi Government’s stand on the issue?

Center represented by AG Mukul Rohatagi said that a person’s freedom cannot be absolute and he/she has collective responsibility towards state. He said that there are millions of fake PAN cards and ration cards and to counter this one needs to link it in order to have unique and fair identification system.

What was the stand of the petitioners?

The petitioner side said that by implementing such schemes the government wants to carry out 24*7 surveillances on their own citizen. The side also said that article 139AA is discriminatory in nature as it bounds its citizens to have both Aadhar and PAN linked together.

Benefits of linking the two identification cards?

There are several benefits of linking both as Aadhar is a unique identity where finger prints plus iris scan is done so that each identity remains unique. Therefore linking Aadhar with PAN or ration cards will end the duplicity of these cards and will remove fake PAN cards and ration cards.

Linking Aadhar with PAN and bank account will allow transparency in filing income tax returns as people saved themselves from filing actual income return by depositing money in multiple accounts. The government will also have the whole bio of the person in case of national security issue. The same reason has been challenged by the petitioner as linking everything with Aadhar will promote surveillance and this poses a challenge to the constitutional freedom.

The SC is still hearing on this issue and if not from this year, linking Aadhar will be mandatory from the next year onwards as nearly 115 crore people poses Aadhar card and only 25 crore people have PAN cards.