New Delhi: The Supreme Court will pronounce its judgement on Friday on a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of a provision in the Income Tax Act making Aadhaar mandatory for filing income tax returns and allotment of PAN.
A bench comprising Justices A.K. Sikri and Ashok Bhushan had on May 4 reserved the verdict on the pleas, challenging section 139AA of the I-T Act, which was introduced through the latest budget and the Finance Act, 2017.
Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act provides for mandatory quoting of Aadhaar or enrollment ID of Aadhaar application form for filing of income tax returns and making application for allotment of PAN with effect from July 1 this year.
While opposing the government’s move, the petitioners, including CPI leader Binoy Viswam, have contended before the bench that the Centre cannot “belittle” the apex court’s 2015 order holding the unique identification number as voluntary.
The Centre had earlier said that Aadhaar was made mandatory for PAN to weed out fake cards.
