The Supreme Court "prima facie" found nothing wrong in the NDA government's controversial rule making Aadhaar number mandatory for filing income tax returns, saying it was a shame that people in India evaded taxes.
During the hearing, when senior advocate Arvind Datar, appearing for a petitioner, raised the issue of the government's move to make quoting Aadhaar for filing income tax returns, the bench asked him, "Do you have a PAN card?".
According to the provisions of Finance Act 2017, the Aadhaar number or Aadhaar enrolment number will be mandatory to file income-tax returns and to apply for a new PAN.
Datar also argued that Aadhaar can not be made mandatory for any scheme or service by the government.
When it was told that the Centre has earlier made a statement in the apex court that they would not make Aadhaar mandatory, the bench said, "they can not be bound by it".
Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi said there were "five to ten lakh fake PAN cards generated every year". "There have been instances wherein personal identity or information of residents, including Aadhaar number and demographic information and other sensitive personal data such as bank account details etc. collected by various Ministries/Departments. has been reportedly published online and is accessible through an easy online search", Archana Dureja, a scientist in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, wrote on March 25 in a letter first reported by Express. "The court can not impose its wisdom on Parliament".
"What we are dealing with is a statute Parliament has enacted. Can you say the Parliament should be precluded from performing its duty of making laws because undertakings were given to this court?" "Therefore, validity of section 139AA can not be seen at the touchstone of what is there in the Aadhaar Act".
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Both Mr. Datar and Mr. Divan had, at the very beginning of the hearing, told the court that their challenge was focused on the legality of Section 139AA and not about Aadhaar scheme as a violation of the citizens' right to privacy.
"We are going into the validity of a Parliamentary legislation". Parliament, in its wisdom, has decided that Aadhaar should be made mandatory for PAN.It is not for this court to say that PAN was not working, so this is good.
Mr. Datar argued that Section 139AA only pertains to individuals and did not extend to companies and firms. "How can you call this a discrimination?"
Mr. Dattar argued that the government's plan to use Aadhaar as an identitiy proof to curb black money was a smokescreen.
Raising the question of proportionality and the object sought to be achieved, Datar wondered: "If you want to check black money, what is the nexus of the war on black money and mandating individuals to link Aadhaar number with PAN?"
A bench headed by justice AK Sikri agreed to examine the validity of the new income tax law, but also questioned the petitioners for doing so.
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