The Delhi high court has received a plea challenging as well as criticizing the decision taken by the state government regarding making Aadhaar cards mandatory for accessing various schemes as well as welfare programmes started by the government. Rajiv Shakdhar, the High Court Judge has asked the Delhi state government to present an answer issuing notice for this purpose. Basically the plea was filed by Ashutosh Chandaula. He complained that the Planning Commission has made Aadhaar cards optional throughout the country, while on the other hand the state government in Delhi is emphasising on making it mandatory for accessing services in the state.
He argued that the Planning Commission came with this initiative of UIDAI based 12 digit unique Aadhaar number only for the benefit of those individuals who had no identity proof documents with them. This UID number is supposed to assist them in opening bank accounts and for accessing other welfare schemes started by the government. However, enrolling for UID card is not compulsory yet.
People are free to do whatever they want. But if they do not get enrolled, they may be left out from a number of schemes in the future. In the light of this issue, the state government of Delhi should have made Aadhaar cards optional, while also accepting other documents like voter ID cards, ration cards, passports and others for claiming benefits from services and schemes.
Another piece of information indicates that now this UIDAI based Aadhaar number will be used as a valid address proof for getting PAN i.e. Permanent Account Number applications. For this purpose, the Finance Minister of India, P Chidambaram was approached for adding Aadhaar onto the list of valid ID proof documents. The Finance Ministry will be issuing a notice very soon. The main reason behind this linking is to curb the duplicity as well as fake PAN cards. PAN cards are generally allotted to tax payers by the ITD i.e. the Income Tax Department.
So far 1.75 lakh Aadhaar cards have been linked by the Finance Ministry with the assistance of ITD. Biometric database of all the tax payers has been prepared by the ministry since the last 2 to 3 years. With the biometrics already present on the UID cards, this process will get easier now. Till the end of last year, around 16.49 crore PAN cards were issued throughout the country. The ITD department has found that some people have multiple PAN cards while others have mentioned incorrect details to escape from paying taxes.
He argued that the Planning Commission came with this initiative of UIDAI based 12 digit unique Aadhaar number only for the benefit of those individuals who had no identity proof documents with them. This UID number is supposed to assist them in opening bank accounts and for accessing other welfare schemes started by the government. However, enrolling for UID card is not compulsory yet.
People are free to do whatever they want. But if they do not get enrolled, they may be left out from a number of schemes in the future. In the light of this issue, the state government of Delhi should have made Aadhaar cards optional, while also accepting other documents like voter ID cards, ration cards, passports and others for claiming benefits from services and schemes.
Another piece of information indicates that now this UIDAI based Aadhaar number will be used as a valid address proof for getting PAN i.e. Permanent Account Number applications. For this purpose, the Finance Minister of India, P Chidambaram was approached for adding Aadhaar onto the list of valid ID proof documents. The Finance Ministry will be issuing a notice very soon. The main reason behind this linking is to curb the duplicity as well as fake PAN cards. PAN cards are generally allotted to tax payers by the ITD i.e. the Income Tax Department.
So far 1.75 lakh Aadhaar cards have been linked by the Finance Ministry with the assistance of ITD. Biometric database of all the tax payers has been prepared by the ministry since the last 2 to 3 years. With the biometrics already present on the UID cards, this process will get easier now. Till the end of last year, around 16.49 crore PAN cards were issued throughout the country. The ITD department has found that some people have multiple PAN cards while others have mentioned incorrect details to escape from paying taxes.
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