Aadhaar linking: SC says it will set up a Constitution Bench to hear cases in last week of November
The Centre had said it will not extend its December 31 deadline for citizens to link Aadhaar with mobile numbers and bank accounts.
The Supreme Court on Monday said it will form a five-judge Constitution Bench, which will from the last week of November start hearing a number of petitions challenging the government’s decision to make Aadhaar-linking mandatory, Bar & Bench reported.
The Centre has made it mandatory to link more than 50 schemes with Aadhaar.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra listed the case after Attorney General KK Venugopal said the Centre will not extend its December 31 deadline to link Aadhaar with mobile numbers and bank accounts for citizens already enrolled. Last week, the Centre had said it was willing to extend the deadline to March 31, 2018, only for those who are yet to get an Aadhaar card.
Supreme Court's five-judge constitution bench to hear #Aadhaar matter in the last week of November.
— ANI (@ANI) October 30, 2017
On Monday, the Attorney General told the court that the case should be heard in March, according to Live Law. Advocate Gopal Subramanian then told the court the government should not make it mandatory to link various services with Aadhaar if the hearing is postponed.
CJI Dipak Misra: Will constitute Constitution Bench to decide validity of #Aadhaar from Nov last week @the_hindu @abaruah64
— Krishnadas Rajagopal (@kdrajagopal) October 30, 2017
Earlier on Monday, the Supreme Court criticised the West Bengal government for challengingthe Centre’s directive to link Aadhaar to various schemes. The bench asked, “How can a state challenge a law by Parliament?” It said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee could approach the court as an individual and challenge it.