The Centre is willing to extend the deadline fixed for mandatory linking of Aadhaar in order to avail various services and welfare schemes till March 31.
The Supreme Court will be now setting up a five-judge constitution bench next week to hear several petitions looking for a provisional stay on the Centre’s decision of mandatory linking of Aadhaar card.
The plea for the interim stay will be heard next week. One of the counsels representing the petitioners had earlier said that final hearing in the main Aadhaar matter pending before the apex court was necessary as the government "cannot compel" citizens to link their Aadhaar with either bank accounts or mobile numbers.
Although the last date to get your Aadhaar linked to your bank accounts for government services and schemes is March 31, Attorney General K.K Venugopal made it clear that the deadline to link mobile numbers to Aadhaar card will be February 6, 2018.The Attorney General told the court that no coercive action would be taken against those who do not have the Aadhaar card but are willing to enroll for. He said such people would not be denied the benefits of social welfare schemes till March 31.
The Centre has mandated Aadhaar card for receiving benefits of almost all government schemes. Besides this, now Aadhaar is compulsory to avail any benefits under the Aadhar Pension Bima Yojna scheme (APBY).
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