Till Sep 30, Aadhaar not must to get ration: Guj govt to HC

The Gujarat government today informed the high court that identity proofs other than Aadhaar were also valid to get ration till September 30.

The state government was responding to a petition filed earlier this month by the Gujarat Fair Price Shop Owners Association which had asked the court to direct the government to allow beneficiaries to avail ration by producing ID proofs other than Aadhaar.

The Gujarat government told the HC that it had already issued a notification declaring ID proofs like driving license or voter ID card as valid proofs to get ration.

In its petition, the Gujarat Fair Price Shop Owners Association, with around 17,000 members, had claimed that people were unable to procure ration despite having Aadhaar cards due to a technical snag in the online PDS system.

The association demanded that PDS shop owners should be allowed to distribute ration by taking other ID proofs if the Aadhaar-connected system was not responding.

Though the government in March this year had announced that other ID proofs were also valid, the notification in this regard had lapsed on June 30.

When the petition came up for final hearing on July 23, Justice Bela Trivedi was informed by the state government that it had already issued a notification declaring that 13 other ID proofs, such as driving license and voter ID card, were also valid to get ration.

However, the state government has clarified that the notification will remain in effect till September 30, a deadline set by the Centre for Aadhaar registration.

The plea has been disposed of following the assurance from the state government.