The Supreme Court pronounced its judgement in the Aadhaar-Permanent Account Number (PAN) linkage case today and partially upheld Section 139AA of the Finance Act, 2017. The section provides for mandatory linkage of Aadhaar with PAN card with effect from July 1, 2017. According to today’s verdict, people who already have an Aadhaar card would now mandatorily need to link their Aadhaar with PAN to file Income Tax returns. The court said that Section 139 AA was necessary to prevent fake PANs. But the SC added “though fake PANs is a threat, the Government should consider “toning down” the consequences of Aadhaar-PAN linking.”

The court has exempted those without an Aadhaar card and has left the onus on the constitutional Bench – that is yet to be formed – to decide if Aadhaar violated Article 21 of the Constitution (the right to personal liberty).

The SC bench added that the arguments presented by Shyam Divan, who argued for privacy and human dignity would not be taken into consideration.