Mamata vs Centre over mandatory Aadhaar linking in SC today

The West Bengal govt has challenged the Centre's mandatory linking of Aadhaar for availing benefits of its social welfare schemes.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court will on Monday hear the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government’s plea against the Centre’s move to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing the benefits of various social welfare schemes.

The firebrand Trinamool leader had recently said that she will not link Aadhaar to her phone number and dared authorities to “disconnect it if they wanted to”.

“Under no circumstances will I link my Aadhaar with my telephone number. If the authorities disconnect my phone, let them do it. It will actually save me a lot of trouble as I won’t have to go through a number of text messages,” she had said.

The plea is listed for hearing before a bench comprising Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan today.

Senior advocate and member of Parliament Kalyan Banerjee had earlier said the petition was filed earlier and would come up for hearing before the bench on October 30.

He said West Bengal government has challenged the provision which said that without Aadhaar the benefits of social welfare schemes would not be extended.

On October 25, the Centre had told the top court that the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to avail benefits of various government schemes has been extended till March 31 next year for those who do not have the 12-digit biometric identification number.

Attorney General KK Venugopal had told a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra that the deadline extension from December end this year till March 31, 2018, would apply only to those who do not have Aadhaar and are willing to enrol for it.

However, Venugopal had told the bench that he would take instructions on certain issues on Aadhaar after which the court had asked him to mention the matter again on October 30.

Several petitions, challenging the Centre’s move to make Aadhaar mandatory for welfare schemes and notifications to link it with mobile numbers and bank accounts, are pending in the apex court.

With PTI inputs