New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India and SEBI have moved the Supreme Court on Tuesday asking it to modify its order on Aadhaar use. The apex court had ruled that Aadhaar to be used only for LPG subsidy.
Supreme Court will hear the matter on October 6.
Earlier on Monday, the RBI moved the Supreme Court seeking clarification of its August 11 interim order that asked the government not to link Aadhaar, the unique identity number, to disbursal of subsidies and other sops under social welfare schemes.
A bench of Justices J Chelameswar, S A Bobde and C Nagappan, while agreeing to hear on October 6 a batch of pleas, however raised the question whether it can entertain
such interim applications after transferring the main petitions to a constitution bench to decide issues like right to privacy.
"The question raised is this: Can we deal with it after referring the matters to constitution bench," the court asked. The RBI sought clarification as to whether an account can be opened in a bank on the basis of the Aadhar card for providing the benefit of pension or for getting paid for MNREGA.
SEBI wanted to use the Aadhaar cards in the securities market to know whether the persons were active in the markets. Raising issues similar to the RBI, Jharkhand, in its plea, sought to use Aadhaar cards in payments of pension and seek a declaration from pensioners that they are alive.
Similarly, Gujarat also wanted to use these cards to identify target beneficiaries of its welfare schemes. The Supreme Court had earlier said that Aadhaar card will
not be mandatory for availing benefits of welfare schemes.
It had however also said that authorities may use Aadhaar cards in PDS scheme and "in particular for the purpose of distribution of food grains, etc and cooking fuel, such as kerosene. The Aadhaar card may also be used for the purpose of
the LPG Distribution Scheme."
Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Gujarat, said that people are free to live wherever they want, but the government will have to find ways to identify target groups or persons for extending benefits of the welfare schemes.
"If I have to identify the persons for granting benefits, I will have to find some ways to do so," he said, adding that the Government, as trustee of public funds, needs to identify target beneficiaries.
The court has now asked the two states, RBI and SEBI to serve copies of their pleas to the petitioners who have challenged the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar card scheme.
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