The Supreme Court states it will hear request challenging mandatory Aadhaar linking with many services after concluding the Delhi-Centre matter. The Supreme Court on Monday announced it would hear a batch of appeals challenging mandatory linking of Aadhaar for granting many services to citizen after its constitution bench concludes hearing the Delhi-Centre dispute.

 Meanwhile, the center notified the bench which is headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra that it was willing to extend up to March 31 next year the deadline fixed for mandatory linking of Aadhaar with different schemes. The bench, along with  Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, told only the Constitution bench will pass an interim order in the matter.

The petitioners challenging the Aadhaar scheme have been pressing for an interim stay order on the government’s decision to make Aadhaar mandatory for welfare schemes. The apex court is hearing a batch of appeals filed by the Delhi government against the Delhi high court verdict which had held that Delhi is not a state and the Lieutenant Governor (LG) is its administrative head.

On October 30, a bench directed by the CJI had told that a constitution bench would be constituted and Aadhaar-related matters would come up for hearing before it. The apex court had on November 13 declined to entertain a plea challenging the linking of mobile numbers with Aadhaar, saying several similar petitions were already pending before it.

It had on November 3 made it clear that banks and telecom service providers will have to indicate the last date of linking bank accounts and mobile numbers with Aadhaar in their communications with customers. And now recently, the last date to link Aadhaar with bank accounts is December 31 this year while for mobile numbers, it is February 6, 2018.