New Deadline

As Supreme Court defers Aadhaar-linking mandate to March 31, all eyes are now on the apex court to bring some clarity and sanity to the contentious issue.

The Supreme Court has extended the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar with various services and welfare schemes of all ministries and departments of the Centre, States and Union Territories till March 31. In an interim order last month, a five-judge constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, considered the statement of the Centre that it was willing to extend the deadline for linking the national biometric identifier with all services and welfare schemes.

The bench, also comprising Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, said: "We accept the statement of the Attorney General of India and order accordingly, and hence, the deadline for Aadhaar linkage with all schemes of ministries and departments is extended till March 31 next year."

The top court agreed with the submission of Attorney General K K Venugopal that as far as linking Aadhaar with existing bank accounts was concerned, the process could be completed by March 31. It also added that for new bank accounts, the last date for completing the process of Aadhaar linking might be extended and people wanting to open new accounts would have to produce proof to the bank that he or she had applied for the card.