The bench that will hear the petitions seeking interim relief from mandatory linking of Aadhaar with bank accounts, and mobile phone numbers, was constituted on 13 December, Wednesday. Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Justices AK Sikri, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan will be the judges on the Aadhaar bench, a Supreme Court notification said.
The five-judge bench will hear applications seeking interim stay on the Centre’s move to link Aadhaar with various other schemes on Thursday at 2 pm.
The bench, however, does not include Justices Sharad Arvind Bobde or Jasti Chelameswar, who had been part of the bench which had referred the issue of Aadhaar's validity to a Constitution Bench in 2015.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Centre had extended the deadline for linking Aadhaar to bank accounts to 31 March. This is in line with the Centre last week informing the Supreme Court that it is willing to extend till 31 March the deadline fixed for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to avail various services and welfare schemes.
Once the Supreme Court hears the main case, it may or may not become illegal to ask for mandatory linkage of services, which is why the petitioners have requested a stay on any linkage of Aadhaar to availing services till the main judgment is out.
The Centre reiterated its earlier proposal to extend the deadline till 31 March 2018 for people who do not have an Aadhaar number. Attorney General KK Venugopal made it clear that this possible extension would not apply to people who have already enrolled for Aadhaar.
The AG also clarified that the last date for linking Aadhaar specifically for mobile services will remain 6 February 2018, which means that there is no change to the status quo.
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) also clarified that the deadline for linking services to Aadhaar remains 31 December 2017.
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