The Centre today informed the Supreme Court that it will extend until December 31, the deadline for mandatory Aadhaar to avail social benefits.
Attorney General KK Venugopal informed the Bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra about the extension of deadline till December 31.
This information was provided when the petitioners sought early hearing of challenges to Aadhaar based on privacy declared to be a fundamental right by the Supreme Court.
The AG also requested the CJI-headed bench to list Aadhaar petitions before a 5-judge constitution bench instead of a 3-judge bench.
The Court said that it will hear a batch of petitions in Aadhaar- related matters in the first week of November.
The apex court was hearing separate petitions challenging government’s notification making Aadhaar mandatory for availing benefits of various social welfare schemes.
The Centre had on June 9 told the apex court that around 95.10 per cent of the entire population has voluntarily registered for Aadhaar and apprehension of “large-scale exclusion” of citizens from government benefits due to lack of unique number was ‘misplaced’ and ‘unfounded’.
Earlier, the apex court had passed a slew of orders asking the government and its agencies not to make Aadhaar mandatory for extending benefits of their welfare schemes.
The apex court, however, had allowed the Centre to seek Aadhaar card voluntarily from citizens for extending benefits of schemes like LPG subsidy, Jan Dhan scheme and Public Distribution System etc.
