New Delhi: The Centre on Wednesday informed the Supreme Court that it would extend the deadline for mandatory linking of the Aadhaar card to avail of banking and other social security benefits from December 31, 2017 to March 31, 2018.
In August, a nine-judge bench had held the right to privacy as a fundamental right, and referred the validity of petitions for a fresh hearing to a three-judge bench and a bunch of petitions challenging the validity of the Aadhaar law is pending adjudication.
On Wednesday, attorney-general, K.K. Venugopal made a “mention” before a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud that the government was prepared to extend the time limit till March 31, 2018 for the mandatory linking of Aadhaar as also to those who don’t have an Aadhaar card to obtain the same. The bench posted the matter for further hearing on October 30.
