Centre Removes December 31 Deadline to Link Aadhaar with Bank Accounts

NEW DELHI:
The Centre on Wednesday extended the December 31 deadline for linking Aadhaar and Permanent Account Number (PAN) to bank accounts till further notice. Earlier, it had set December 31 as the last date for linking the Unique Identification Number (UID) to bank accounts.
A notification issued on Tuesday by the Finance Ministry’s revenue department said the new deadline would be notified by the Central government after due consultations. The new notification in the Gazette modifies the Prevention of Money Laundering Act of 2002 to replace the requirement of submitting “the Aadhaar number and PAN by December 31, 2017” with a provision saying “submit the Aadhaar number, and PAN or Form No. 60, by such date as may be notified by the Central government”. The PMLA forms the core of the legal framework put in place by the government to combat money laundering and generation of black money.
The announcement comes after the government on Friday extended the deadline to link Aadhar with PAN from December 31, 2017 to March 31, 2018. Sources said over 14 crore PANs have been linked with Aadhaar till now, which is about 41 per cent of total 33 crore cards issued by the Income Tax department. About 115 crore people have Aadhaar cards.
Meanwhile, a five-judge constitutional bench of the Supreme Court is likely to hear a clutch of petitions challenging the Centre’s move to make Aadhaar mandatory to avail government schemes and welfare measures on Thursday. On August 24, a nine-judge Constitution bench ruled that privacy is a fundamental right, subject to reasonable restrictions. It had observed, “The right to privacy is protected as an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 and as a part of the freedoms guaranteed by Part III of the Constitution.” The verdict is likely to impact on the Aadhaar case before the five-judge bench.