Include last date for Aadhaar linking in SMS alerts, says SC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday sought the government's response to four petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar Act and linking of bank accounts and mobile numbers with the 12-digit biometric identification number.

The apex court did not pass any interim order in the matter saying that final hearing in all Aadhaar-related issues would start before another bench in the last week of this month and the Centre has already extended the deadline till December 31.

A bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan, however, said that the banks and telecom service providers should indicate the last date of linking bank accounts and mobile numbers with Aadhaar in the messages sent by them to their customers.

At the same time though, the top court chastised banks and mobile telephone companies for creating panic by sending customers messages saying their accounts would be deactivated if they were not Aadhaar-linked.

Senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for one of the petitioners, referred to a recently filed affidavit by the Centre and said the government has said the deadline for linking Aadhaar might be extended till March 31, 2018.

The bench, however, said the petitioners could raise this issue before the court which would hear all Aadhaar-related matters in the last week of November.

"There is no doubt that these arguments need consideration. The matter is going to come up in the last week of November and the time (to link Aadhaar with bank accounts) has been extended till December 31," the bench said.

On October 30, a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra had said that a constitution bench would be constituted and Aadhaar-related matters would come up for hearing before it in November last.

Several petitions challenging the Centre's move to make Aadhaar card mandatory for availing various services and benefits of welfare schemes have been filed in the apex court.

Recently, a nine-judge constitution bench of the apex court had held that Right to Privacy was a Fundamental Right under the Constitution. Several petitioners challenging the validity of Aadhaar had claimed it violated privacy rights.

The Centre had on October 25 told the top court that the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to receive benefits of government schemes had been extended till March 31, 2018, for those who do not have the 12-digit unique biometric identification number and were willing to enrol for it.

New Delhi: Indian Railways has increased the monthly cap on tickets booked on the ICRTC portal from six to 12 for Aadhaar-verified passengers, officials said.

The move, which came into effect on October 26, is believed to be an innovative way for the railways to encourage passengers to link their Aadhar numbers to their online booking accounts on IRCTC.

IRCTC officials said passengers could continue to book up to six tickets a month without validating their Aadhaar cards.

If the number goes beyond six, the Aadhaar number of the user and one of the passengers should be updated in the IRCTC portal, an official explained.

Users on the IRCTC portal have to click on Aadhaar KYC under the 'my profile' category and update their Aadhaar number.

A one-time password (OTP) will be sent to the mobile number linked to Aadhaar and should be entered for verification.

Also, the Aadhaar number of any one of the accompanying passengers should also be updated under the master list. This will be validated through an OTP.

Users can store the names of verified passengers accompanying them on the 'master list'. This should be done before starting the process of booking more than six tickets a month, officials said.

The move is expected to eliminate malpractices in ticket bookings as touts and travel agents cannot create fake user IDs anymore.

In the IRCTC portal, six passengers can be reserved on a single ticket under general quota while Tatkal bookings allow four passengers per ticket.

The railways had announced in December last year that registration of Aadhaar with IRCTC was mandatory to avail concessions from April 1, 2017, but dropped the idea after opposition from various forums. Mpost