In a fresh development, Government has made Aadhaar mandatory for opening a bank account. It has also made it mandatory for financial transactions of Rs 50,000 and above. All the existing account holders have been asked to submit Aadhaar to banks by December 31, 2017, failing which accounts will become invalid.

It has come a week after the Supreme Court upheld the government’s decision to link Aadhaar to one’s PAN card but refused to make it compulsory for those who don’t have an Aadhaar card or who have not yet applied for one, till a Constitutional Bench decides on the privacy question pending before it.

The tax provision by the Centre, said that those who file income tax returns without an Aadhaar-linked PAN card would have their PAN declared invalid.

“Court upheld validity of law, since a larger challenge is pending before the Constitution Bench. Today, anybody can get a PAN card with any name on it. A person can get several PAN cards — say, as Mukesh Gupta, then another as Mukesh Kumar Gupta, and a third as M K Gupta, so on and so forth,” said Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi.

Earlier, Aadhaar was made mandatory for Beedi/Iron Ore/limestone workers for availing house subsidy, supplementary nutrition program, farmers wanting to take crop insurance benefit, people wishing to avail benefits of welfare schemes under Integrated Department of Horticulture, National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme and Janani Suraksha Yojana, to get Maternity Benefit Programme and Integrated Child Protection Scheme, etc. #casansaar (PTI - IndianExpress)