A five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court of India led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra has decided to extend the further hearing on Aadhaar till January.
The bench has already extended the deadline for Aadhaar to mobile linkage from February 6, 2018 to March 31, 2018.
“Deadline for everything, except for mobile phones and new bank accounts, has been extended to March 31, 2018,” said K.K. Venugopal, Attorney-General.
In this context, the Centre’s side referred to a notification issued by the Ministry of Finance that had amended the provison to Rule 9 (17) (a) of the Prevention of Money Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules of 2005 for omitting the deadline of December 31. The notification also pointed out the Rule 9 (17) (c) that stated bank accounts would stop operating if they were not seeded with Aadhaar by December 31.
An updated notification on the issue by the Ministry of Finance extended the deadline for Aadhaar-bank linking to March 31.
Last week, the Centre had made an announcement showing its willingness to extend the last date for linking of welfare subsidies and services in adherence to Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act of 2016 to March 31.
The Constitution Bench had notified to give interim directions under the impression that the deadline was still December 31.
After a day-long hearing, the Bench said since the deadline has been extended to March, the final hearing on the very validity of Aadhaar scheme, challenged in 24 separate petitions, can be scheduled for January. Subsequently, the court fixed the date as January 17, 2018.
