Government has told the Supreme Court that Aadhaar was made mandatory for PAN card to weed out fake PAN cards which were used for terror financing and circulation of black money.
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told the court yesterday that the idea behind bringing Aadhaar was to have a secure and robust system to ensure that the identity of a person cannot be faked. The Attorney General also said, due to Aadhaar, the Centre has saved over 50,000 crore rupees on the benefit schemes for the poor as well as pension schemes. He said, it has helped in ensuring that the funds from government-run welfare schemes reached the persons who were entitled for it. The hearing will continue today.
The court is hearing three petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act which was introduced through the latest budget and the Finance Act 2017. Section 139AA provides for mandatory quoting of Aadhaar or enrolment ID of Aadhaar application form for filing of income tax returns and making application for allotment of PAN number with effect from first of July this year.
