The Supreme Court on Tuesday referred the pleas against linking of PAN with Aadhaar details to a nine-judge Constitution bench. The bench will also decide on whether Aadhaar violates the right to privacy, which was brought up in earlier hearings. The matter will be heard in the top court on Wednesday.

Chief Justice of India, KS Khehar, said, “It has become essential for us to determine whether whether there is any fundamental right to privacy under the Indian Constitution.”

On July 7, the Supreme Court had recommended setting up a Constitutional bench to decide on all Aadhaar-related matters. After Attorney General KK Venugopal had pointed out that an earlier eight-judge bench had already ruled that the right to privacy is not a fundamental right, the apex court had said that the Constitution bench will decide whether the Aadhaar matter should be referred to a nine-judge bench.

On June 27, a vacation bench had rejected a plea to pass an interim order against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government’s notification to make Aadhaar mandatory when applying for social welfare schemes. The top court, however, did say that those without Aadhaar cards could not be deprived of any government schemes or benefits till the next hearing.