Skip to main content

SC reserves verdict on Aadhaar-PAN linkage

By

After strongly contested arguments amid a raging public debate, the Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its verdict on the constitutional validity of a law making it mandatory for citizens to link their Permanent Account Number with Aadhaar unique identity.A bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan will decide on the validity of Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act which provides for compulsory quoting of Aadhaar for filing income tax returns and application for allotment of PAN from July 1.Though the court’s verdict will be confined to the validity of Section 139AA, the judgment will have wider implications as government authorities are expanding the ambit of Aadhaar by linking it to various other schemes.Justifying the law, the Centre termed Aadhaar an effective and fool proof tool to check tax evasion. However, civil society members challenged the provision and said it was a “draconian” law which will take away people’s right of privacy and allow the government to monitor their lives through digital surveillance. The government said Aadhaar was mandatory under the Aadhaar Act and there is nothing wrong in linking it with other schemes besides asserting that the law passed by Parliament could not be questioned by court. The Centre had earlier assured the SC that Aadhaar will not be made mandatory till its constitutional validity is decided by the court but Parliament went ahead and passed the law for compulsory linking with PAN.

The Times of India New Delhi, 05th May 2017

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Data storage norm splits digital payments industry

By
Data storage norm splits digital payments industry  India’s nascent digital payment industry could be thrown into disarray due to the demand by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that all user data be stored within the country, fears an industry grouping, which has termed the decision as “heavy-handed”, even as others, including the country’s largest digital payment provider Paytm, have hailed the move.  In a bid to narrow the growing schism, the industry is planning to send a formal representation to the regulator highlighting its concerns, a top official told ET.  “We are trying to build a consensus on the issue," said the person adding that the representation to the central bank will be ready this week.  RBI on April 6, mandated all payment companies—global and local—to set up data storage facilities within India by October. The stringent six-month deadline has attracted the ire of several sections of the industry that fear it will lead to a disruption of wel...
18 comments
Read more

Sebi to finalise options in commodities today

By
The Commodity Derivatives Advisory Committee of the Securities and Exchange Board of India ( Sebi) will meet on Friday with senior officials of the latter, to give a final shape to the rules on options trading in commodity futures, beside revising the warehousing norms to ensure good delivery on settlement. The decision taken, after discussing with the advisory committee, will be placed before the regulator’s board, to finalise the regulations. According to knowledgeable sources, three commodities in each segment, agricultural and non- agricultural, have been proposed for introducing options. It appears commodities from the soya and guar segments are preferred in the former. From the non- agri segment, it is likely that gold, silver and crude oil will be finalised. All these These have better liquidity and both the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange and the Multi Commodity Exchange, respectively, will be able to introduce the options. In the equity segments, options ar...
17 comments
Read more

E tailers global warehouses may come under tax net

By
E tailers  global warehouses may come under tax net Warehouses of e-commerce companies based in countries such as Australia, Japan, Italy,  Spain, the Netherlands, and Russia may not be exempted from paying the income tax in India  once the multilateral instrument (MLI) to prevent base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS)  comes into force. BEPS refers to the reporting framework mooted by the Organisation for Economic  Co-operation and Development (OECD) and signed by over 100 countries, including India, to  prevent exploiting gaps and mismatches in tax rules to shift profits by multinational  companies (MNCs) artificially to low-tax regimes. The representatives of 68 countries on June 7 this year signed an agreement (MLI) in Paris  to amend their tax treaties to bring them in alignment with measures to prevent BEPS.  However, there is still time for synchronising tax treaties with the multilateral  instrument. India has submitte...
17 comments
Read more