Chief Minister challenges Aadhaar in Supreme Court

Kolkata: Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of Bengal, has taken the Centre to the Supreme Court, challenging rules that make Aadhaar mandatory for all financial transactions.

The Supreme Court would hear on October 30 a plea filed by the West Bengal government against the Centre's move to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing the benefits of various social welfare schemes.

The plea is listed for hearing before a bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan.

Senior advocate and member of parliament Kalyan Banerjee said the petition was filed earlier and would come up for hearing before the bench on October 30.

He said that West Bengal government has challenged the provision which said that without Aadhaar, the benefits of social welfare schemes would not be extended.

On October 25, the Centre had told the top court that the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to avail benefits of various government schemes had been extended till March 31 next year for those who do not have the 12-digit biometric identification number.

Attorney General K K Venugopal had told a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra that the deadline extension from December ends this year till March 31, 2018, would apply only to those who do not have Aadhaar and are willing to enrol for it.

However, Venugopal had told the bench that he would take instructions on specific issues on Aadhaar after which the court had asked him to mention the matter again on October 30.

Several petitions, challenging the Centre's move to make Aadhaar mandatory for welfare schemes and notifications to link it with mobile numbers and bank accounts, are pending in the apex court.

The Bengal chief minister had earlier this week announced that she would rather have her phone disconnected than submit to that rule.

"I will not link #Aadhaar with my phone, if they want to disconnect my phone, let them," Banerjee said defiantly, addressing her Trinamool Congress party's core committee meeting.