Government bats for Aadhaar, says it will curb tax evasion

Apex court says it’s a “shame” that citizens do not want to pay taxes. AG claims Aadhaar is the only system which could curb fake cards

Aadhaar – a unique 12-digit number is assigned to about 99 per cent of adult Indian residents. | File Photo

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the Centre’s policy to link Aadhaar to PAN card and Income Tax returns has been aimed at improving the present system and to avoid tax evasions.

A Bench of justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said, “We know that tax evasion is there and when such evasions take place, the government is trying to block these leakages by bringing new statute. We citizens are like that, it is a shame that we do not want to pay tax,” adding that, “When a man is getting married, he has the best income and once a maintenance petition is filed, he becomes a pauper.”

During the day-long hearing on three petitions challenging the constitutional validity of section 139AA of the Income Tax (IT) Act, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing on behalf of the Centre, said there is no technology in the world that can prevent duplication other than biometric details.

“99% of the population in India is already having Aadhaar and it is not at the nascent stage,” the AG said, adding that these steps have been taken to weed out 10 lakh fake PAN cards and that Aadhaar was the only solution which could prevent duplication or fake cards.

Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act, introduced by the Finance Act 2017, requires mandatory quoting of Aadhaar or enrolment ID of Aadhaar application form for filing of Income Tax returns and for applying for allotment of PAN number, with effect from July 1 this year.

Senior advocate Arvind Datar, appearing on behalf of former Kerala minister and CPI leader Binoy Viswam, told the Bench that they have challenged the constitutional validity of section 139AA of the Income Tax Act and said the section is violative of Article 14 and 19 (1) (g) of the Constitution and it is an example of colourable exercise of power.

“The government had repeatedly told the Bench that it will not make Aadhaar mandatory, but now it is doing it via the Income Tax Act. If anyone who does not get an Aadhaar card will lose their PAN card as well... It is a civil death as without PAN, I won’t be able to buy property, operate bank account and several other activities,” Datar argued before the Bench.

“In the Aadhaar act, there was not a single word saying that the intention behind the statute was to check black money and weed out fake PAN cards,” Datar contended.