New Delhi: The Apex Court yesterday has declined from passing any interim stay order AAdhar linking with bank accounts and sim numbers directing the Banks and telecom services to provide its customers with deadlines for the linking of Aadhar.
It stated that the final hearing in all pleas related to Aadhaar would start before another bench in the last week of November and that bench would decide on the issue.
The bench on Friday was headed by Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan. They said, ”We make it clear that in the messages sent by banks and telecom service providers, the date of December 31, 2017 and February 6, 2018, shall also be indicated as the last date of linking Aadhaar with bank accounts and mobile numbers”.
The court issued notice to the Centre on four separate pleas and tagged them with the main petition, which would come up for final hearing before a Constitution bench.
The bench said that since another bench was scheduled to begin hearing the Aadhaar-related pleas from the last week of November, that bench should also decide the other matters.
Senior advocate Shyam Divan, representing one of the petitioners, referred to the recent affidavit filed by the Centre and said it has been told by the government that the December 31 deadline for linking Aadhaar with bank accounts may be extended up to March 31, 2018.
“The notification says the process (of linking Aadhaar with bank accounts) should be completed by December 31, 2017 or else the accounts would cease to operate. Now, they say it may be extended till March 31, 2018. Thererfore, till March 31, bank accounts should not be made non-operational,” he said.
He said Attorney General K.K. Venugopal had recently mentioned the matter before Chief Justice Dipak Misra but not made a statement that no coercive action would be taken till March 31, 2018 against those who have not linked their mobiles or bank accounts with Aadhaar.
“The whole idea is not to coerce people. If they are extending the deadlines, this aspect must be clarified,” Divan argued while also raising the issue of linking of Aadhaar with mobile numbers.
When the bench asked the Attorney General about it, Venugopal referred to the apex court’s judgement declaring right to privacy as a fundamental right and said in that verdict, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud had emphasised on a robust regime for protection of data.
He said the report of Justice Sri Krishna committee, which has initiated the process of reviewing the entire issue of data protection, is likely to be ready by first week of March and that is why he had mentioned the matter before the CJI for extension of time till March 31, 2018 for linking of Aadhaar to get the benefits of various government schemes.
“It was opposed tooth and nail (by the petitioners). The court had said it will hear it in the last week of November,” the Attorney General said.
When the petitioners again said the Centre should not take coercive action against anyone till March 31 next year, the bench said, “till December 31, time is already there”.
“Since the final hearing in these matters would start in the end of November and time is already extended up to December 31, 2017, there is no need to pass any interim order at this stage. However, liberty is granted to the petitioners to press prayer for stay in case the hearing does not take place or continue beyond that,” the bench said.