The Supreme Court on Tuesday referred to a larger constitutional bench a fresh petition challenging mandatory linking of Aadhaar with certain specific social beneficiary schemes, and seeking a stay on more than 17 such government schemes.
A two-judge bench comprising of Justice AK Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan directed the petition to a larger constitutional bench to ensure that there is some interim order before the Aadhaar enrolment deadline of June 30 for most of these schemes.
The fresh petition filed on Monday is in addition to a batch of petitions that were being heard by the apex court against Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act, 1961 making Aadhaar mandatory for filing income tax returns and for obtaining a Permanent Account Number. On May 4, the apex court had reserved its judgement on these petitions.
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There have been a slew of notifications issued in the last three-four months under Section 7 of the Aadhar Act 2016 making it mandatory for, among others, mid day meals, public distribution system, benefits for people rescued from bonded labour, Bhopal gas victims, etc.
The fresh petition by Shanta Sinha and Kalyani Menon have challenged these notifications. In response the apex court directed the petitioners to approach the constitutional bench and voice their concerns before the Chief Justice of India to try and get an interim stay on making Aadhaar mandatory for these schemes, one lawyer with knowledge of the development said on the condition of anonymity.
In the past, there have been delays in setting up a larger constitutional bench since it is at the Chief Justice of India’s discretion, Senior Advocate Shyam Divan, counsel for one of the petitioners in the Aadhaar-PAN linkage matter said on Tuesday.
Speaking at an event discussing the legal aspects of Aadhaar in New Delhi, Divan explained that there is a roster for the Chief Justice of India to allocate judges for setting up benches for a hearing. There have been three Chief Justices who have come and gone in the Aadhaar case since October 2015, he added.
There is nothing that we can do except going up to the Chief Justice and say that this should be seen on priority.Shyam Divan, Senior Advocate
Divan said the reason the present Chief Justice of India JS Khehar has not been able to expedite the matter is probably lack of personnel to spare for the hearing. The government argued before an eight-judge bench that a citizen doesn’t have the right to privacy on certain issues, he said. “Now to overturn this, it needs to be referred to a nine-judge bench, which the Chief Justice of India is perhaps not ready to spare,” he added.
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