Mandatory Aadhaar linking: SC reserves order

The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its interim order for tomorrow on pleas seeking a stay on the government's decision of mandatory linking of Aadhaar with various welfare schemes.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said the final hearing on the petitions challenging the Aadhaar scheme itself would commence from January 17 next year.

The central government had yesterday attempted to convince the court not to interfere with its deadlines, promising to extend it for another three months till 31 March 2018 for those who do not have Aadhaar.

Earlier on October 25, the Supreme court had said that the deadline for compulsory linking of Aadhaar to receive benefits of government schemes has been extended till March 31, 2018 for those who do not have the 12-digit unique biometric identification number.

Earlier the court had tagged 22 cases to be heard by a smaller bench.

The cases challenge several aspects of Aadhaar, including the use of data collected under the unique identification programme.

As of now, the 12-digit Aadhaar number is compulsory to be linked to bank accounts, PAN cards, government services and cell phone services.