The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its orders on the validity of a law introduced in the Income Tax Act which makes quoting of Aadhaar number essential for using PAN and filing of Income Tax returns from July 1, 2017.
The Government had claimed that the purpose behind introduction of Aadhaar under Section 139AA of Income Tax Act was to check on black money transactions and to put a robust system in place that was not prone to duplication as unlike PAN cards.
The petitioners — a retired Major General, a social activist, and a senior political leader, through senior advocates Arvind Datar and Shyam Divan argued that Parliament had enacted the Aadhaar programme under the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, Benefits, and Services) Act 2016 meant as a voluntary scheme. Four months later, it could not have passed another law under Income Tax Act making Aadhaar mandatory for purpose of filing IT returns.
The bench of Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan, reserving orders on the set of petitions, observed, “Even if black money is the intended objective, the Government thinks that with Aadhaar they can achieve it with individuals. For tracking companies, perhaps they may have something else (as Aadhaar is not issued to companies). But the point is, a beginning has to be made somewhere.”