Aadhaar: Centre Willing to Extend Deadline for Linking Schemes

NEW DELHI:
The Centre may extend the deadline for linking Aadhaar cards to various welfare schemes to March 31, 2018, Attorney General K K Venugopal told the Supreme Court on Wednesday. The decision will be applicable for those who do not have an Aadhar card and are willing to enroll for one.
As of now, December 31, 2017 is the deadline for linking Aadhaar to avail benefits of various schemes like government scholarships, subsidised LPG cylinders, farm loans and pension schemes.
The Reserve Bank of India, too, had announced last week that bank account holders across the country will have to compulsorily link their accounts to their Aadhaar number by December 31, 2017. It also clarified that linking Aadhaar to bank accounts is mandatory. The union government had earlier said the deadline to furnish Aadhaar to avail benefits of welfare schemes will be extended until December 31.
The government has made it mandatory to link Aadhaar to several essentials and has also set strict penalties for defaulting on deadlines over the last few months. Aadhaar, an identification document bearing a unique 12-digit Aadhaar number, is issued to an individual by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) after a person registers their demographic and biometric details with the UIDAI.
A case on the constitutional validity of Aadhaar is as of now pending in the Supreme Court.