File photo of Aadhaar card.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the new law linking Aadhaar to PAN but said it will not be made mandatory for non-Aadhaar holders till pending pleas over the right to privacy is decided by the Constitution Bench.
The bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan upheld the relevant section 139 AA of the Income Tax Act subject to the verdict by a Constitutional Bench on the question of Right to Privacy.
Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act provides for mandatory quoting of Aadhaar or enrolment ID of Aadhaar application form for filing of income tax returns and making application for allotment of PAN (Permanent Account Number) with effect from July 1 this year.
Simply put: You have to quote Aadhaar while filing returns, but there will not be any adverse consequences if you do not do so till the verdict of the Constitutional Bench.
The apex court brushed aside contention that the new law is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution which provides equality before the law and prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth, or any of them.
The bench asked the government to take appropriate steps to ensure there was no leakage of data from the Aadhaar scheme.
“The government to take proper and appropriate steps and the scheme in this regard has to be devised at the earliest till confidence among the citizens that the data would not be leaked,” the bench said.
The bench made it clear that there was no conflict between the impugned provisions of the Income Tax Act and the Aadhaar Act.
It also said that PAN card without Aadhaar number would not be treated invalid till the Constitution bench decides the larger issue of Right to Privacy.
It said previous transactions won’t be affected or nullified with the partial stay on the new law till privacy issue linked to Aadhaar is decided.
The Centre had earlier said that the programme of PAN had become suspect as it could be faked, while Aadhaar was a “secure and robust” system by which the identity of an individual could not be faked.