Supreme Court: 5-judge bench of H.L. Dattu, CJ and M.Y. Eqbal, C. Nagappan, Arun Mishra and Amitava Roy, JJ constituted to clarify/modify the orders dated 11.08.2015 by a 3-judge bench of this Court. The Court, however, clarified clear that the Aadhaar card Scheme is purely voluntary and it cannot be made mandatory till the matter is finally decided by this Court one way or the other.
The Court, after considering the submissions of Mukul Rohtagi, learned Attorney General for India and Shyam Divan, Soli Sorabjee and Gopal Subramanium said that if the Schemes like The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employement Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), National Social Assistance Programme (Old Age Pensions, Widow Pensions, Disability Pensions) Prime Minister’s Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) and Employees’ Providend Fund Organisation (EPFO) are added to the P.D.S. Scheme and the L.P.G. Distribution Scheme as mentioned in the order dated 11.08.2015, it will not dilute the earlier order passed by this Court. The 3-judge bench order dated 11.08.2015 mentioned that the Unique Identification Number or the Aadhaar card will not be used by for any purpose other than the PDS Scheme and the LPG Distribution Scheme. [Justice K.S.Puttaswamy (Retd) v. Union of India, 2015 SCC OnLine SC 969, dated 15.10.2015]
