Supreme Court Seeks Centre's Response on Linking Aadhaar with Mobiles

The Bharatiya Janata Party government has been desperately pushing for the Aadhaar card to be mandatory and wants it to be linked with everything, like bank accounts, pan card, driver's license and now mobile phones. The Supreme court on Monday sought the Centre's response on a plea challenging the mandatory linking of mobile phones with Aadhaar.

A bench of Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan gave the Centre four-weeks time to respond.

However, the apex court came down hard on West Bengal's Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for filing a plea that challenged the Centre's move to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing benefits of various social welfare schemes. "How can a state file such a plea, challenging Parliament's mandate," it said.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government, told the court that the plea has been filed by the labour department of the state as subsidies under these schemes have to be given by them. Sibal maintained that the state was entitled to file such a plea but said that they would amend the prayer in the petition.

The court gave the West Bengal government time to amend its petition. It also said that the Banerjee could challenge the Aadhaar law as an "individual" and a "citizen". The chief minister had earlier told that she would go without a mobile connection but will not succumb to the Centre's pressure of linking her Aadhaar to her mobile number.

The Chief Minister’s appeal comes a month after a 11-year-old Santoshi Kumar died of starvation on September 28, after the Public Distribution System (PDS) outlets in Jharkhand’s Simdega district refused to give her family ration. The family’s ration card had reportedly got cancelled as it was not linked to Aadhaar.

With inputs from IANS and PTI