The Centre on Friday faced searching questions from the Supreme Court for making Aadhaar mandatory for PAN cards, despite its order that it should be optional. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Centre, made the submission as a Bench comprising Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan asked him why Aadhaar has been made mandatory for applying for PAN cards when the apex court had earlier said it should be made optional. Rohatgi said the government had found that lots of fake PAN cards had been procured on the basis of fake ration cards and other documents and these were used to divert funds to shell firms.To stop such a situation, it has been decided to make Aadhaar mandatory while applying for PAN. “There is a legislative mandate now.Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act says so. It is the only option as we have found that people were getting PAN cards on fake ration cards and such cards were used to divert funds to shell firms,” he said. The Bench observed, “Is