The Supreme Court on Friday said that the government cannot make it obligatory to link Aadhaar card particulars to one’s PAN card for Income Tax purposes till the Constitutional Bench decides the matter. The Supreme Court ruled that the government must prepare a scheme to avoid the leakage of personal details.
A bench including Justice AK Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan said that those who already have Aadhaar number will have to link it with PAN, but it cannot be forced upon in case of people not possessing Aadhaar card.
The Income Tax Department wanted people to link their Permanent Account Number (PAN) with Aadhaar. They also emailed taxpayers guidelines on how to do the PAN-Aadhaar linking online. Apart from that, advertisements in leading dailies have also issued describing how it can be done via SMS.
Earlier, the government had decided to lower the limit on cash transaction from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 2 lakh. It wanted to make Aadhaar number mandatory for filing income tax returns and applying for a PAN card.
