Never directed Aadhaar-mobile number linkage, says Supreme Court
Never directed Aadhaar-mobile number linkage, says Supreme Court The Supreme Court on Wednesday raised questions over the government's decision ordering mandatory linking of mobile numbers with Aadhaar. It also said, earlier order on mandatory authentication of the users was used as a "tool" only. "In fact there was no such direction from the Supreme Court, but you took it and used it as a tool (rpt tool) to make Aadhaar mandatory for mobile users," the bench, also comprising Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, said. "How can you (DoT) impose condition on service recipients for seeding Aadhaar with mobile phones," the bench said, adding that license agreements were between the government and the service providers. Significantly, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, who appeared for UIDAI, agreed with the bench and said the government appeared to have taken the SC’s observations for verification of mobile phone subscribers seriously. The apex court on March 13 had indefinitely extended the deadline for linkage of Aadhaar with mobile numbers and bank accounts of individuals and asked the government to wait till the constitution bench decided the validity of Aadhaar to take further steps in this regard. -PTC News
