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Linking Aadhaar with PAN needed to curb multiple PAN cards, SC told
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SME Times News Bureau | 03 May, 2017
The central government on Tuesday defended linking the Aadhaar number
with permanent account number (PAN) and making it mandatory for filing
income tax returns, telling the Supreme Court that it was meant to curb
individuals possessing multiple PAN cards by putting in place a robust
identification system.
Telling the bench of Justice A.K.Sikri and
Justice Ashok Bhushan that people and shell companies possessing
multiple PAN cards were causing tax loss of thousands of crores of
rupees, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said that government was not just
dealing with the matter of tax collection but money laundering, curbing
black money and terror funding.
Opposing the petitions
challenging insertion of Section 139 AA in the Income Tax Act, he said
by linking Aadhaar number with the benefits under the social welfare
schemes, government had saved Rs 50,000 crore.
Describing Aadhaar
as a PAN in more complex milieu, Rohatgi said that back in 2009, the
government had considered issuing PAN Plus having iris and finger
impressions but this was shelved as by then Aadhaar had come in.
The
bench was also told that PAN too was introduced as a unique
identification document and Aadhaar has now been linked with PAN because
earlier identity proof documents like ration cards, driving licence and
others could be manipulated.
Telling the court that there can't
be a duplicate of Aadhaar identity, he brushed aside the apprehensions
that digital record of individual's iris and finger print scan could be
leaked.
"No data under Aadhaar will be shared with anyone or
anybody" except in the case of criminals being investigated by police,
Attorney General said that the vires of Section 139AA could not be
raised on the strength of an interim order of the court.
If today
Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act is read down on the strength of the
earlier interim order of the court, what would happen if later that
interim order itself goes, he asked.
The top court by its August
11, 2015, order had said that the Unique Identification Number or the
Aadhaar card will not be used by the government or its agencies for any
purpose other than the PDS Scheme and in particular for the purpose of
distribution of foodgrains, etc. and cooking fuel, such as kerosene. It
had also allowed its use for the LPG Distribution Scheme.
Addressing
the petitioner's contention that insisting on Aadhaar that carries his
Iris and fingerprint scan was an intrusion on their body, Rohatgi said
that no right was absolute including right to the body.
As he
said that the state can extinguish the life of person accused of certain
offences, the court reminded him that can only be by following due
process of law.
"Balance has to be made in the society we live
in, dignity of person has to be protected", the bench said even as
Rohatgi argued that when a person can give impression of his finger
prints for registration of property, then how giving it in digital form
is objectionable.
The court's observations came in the course of the hearing of two petitions challenging the newly inserted Section 139AA.
The
government had inserted Section 139AA in the Income Tax Act through the
Finance Act, 2017, with the objective of curbing the black money.
Senior
Communist Party of India leader Binoy Visman, former Indian Army
officer S.G. Vombatkere and Safai Karamchari Andolan founder and
convenor Bezwada Wilson had moved the court challenging the section's
validity.
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