SC likely to pass order against mandatory Aadhaar for social schemes

The Supreme Court on Friday is likely to pass an order whether or not Aadhaar Card is mandatory for availing government social benefit schemes.

On June 10, the Supreme Court had ruled that from July 1 onward, every person eligible to obtain Aadhaar must quote their Aadhaar number or their Aadhaar Enrolment ID number for filing of Income Tax Returns as well as for applications for Permanent Account Number (PAN).

Earlier in the month, the Apex Court pronounced its order on mandatory requirements of Aadhar card for Income Tax Return (ITR).

The Income Tax Department has stepped up its efforts to encourage people to link their PAN with Aadhaar.

In the recent days, while many taxpayers have received emails on how to do the PAN-Aadhaar linking online, advertisements in leading national dailies have described how it can be done via SMS.

Urging the taxpayers to link Aadhaar with PAN as soon as possible, an email from the Income Tax Department's e-filing team reads: "This (linking of Aadhaar and PAN) will be useful for E-Verification of Income Tax returns using Aadhaar OTP (One-Time Password)."

The government had earlier decided to lower the limit on cash transactionfrom Rs. 3 lakh to Rs. 2 lakh, and make Aadhaar number mandatory for filing income tax returns and applying for a PAN card.

The decisions were part of amendments moved to the finance bill, which puts into effect the Budget proposals.