Key Highlights 

  • SC has upheld the law making Aadhaar a must for filing income tax returns for those who have it and its linkage to PAN card.
  • Those who have a PAN but have not yet got Aadhaar can still file their income tax returns this year.
  • The government cannot stop enrolment of people for new PAN cards yet, SC clarified.

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Apex court of India on Friday upheld a law that made linkage of the Aadhaar card to a citizen’s permanent account number (PAN) mandatory along with its use in filing income tax returns, for those who hold it.
 
Supreme Court upheld the validity of Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act which will make Aadhaar mandatory for allotment of PAN cards and linking the filing of Income Tax returns.

"Section 139AA(2) of the Income Tax Act provides that every person who has been allotted PAN as on the 1st day of July, 2017, and who is eligible to obtain Aadhaar, shall intimate his Aadhaar on or before a date to be notified by the Central Government," SC said. 

It further clarrified that the judgement was in no violation of previous provisions made by the court. “Parliament was fully competent to enact Section 139AA of the Act and its authority to make this law was not diluted by the orders of this Court,” SC said.
 
The SC defended its judgement by stating that the decision would be a step forward in tackling the menace of corruption and black money.
 
A PTI report quoted SC bench who said, “It is mentioned that in de-duplication exercises, 11.35 lakhs cases of duplicate PANs/fraudulent PANs have been detected. Out of these, around 10.52 lakhs pertain to individual assesses. Parliament in its wisdom thought that one PAN to one person can be ensured by adopting Aadhaar for allotment of PAN to individuals. As of today, that is the only method available i.E. By seeding of existing PAN with Aadhaar." 

“Those assessees who are not Aadhaar card holders and do not comply with the provision of Section 139(2), their PAN cards be not treated as invalid for the time being," SC clarified.

This only means that those who do not hold an Aadhaar card currently do not need to produce it at the time of filing returns.

Supreme Court says partial stay on mandatory Aadhaar for tax returns
 
Here is how you can link the two cards:
 
1. Register yourself at the e-Filing website of the Income Tax Department or go to this link www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in and login with your id and password.
 
2. If you are already registered, login the site using your ID, password, and captcha code.
 
3. Once you login, a window will pop-up proposing to link your PAN with UID.
 
4. Your registered details will appear automatically.
 
5. Verify the details and match them with details mentioned in Aadhar card.
 
6. If the details are tallying, just type in your Aadhar card number. Click the “link now” button.
 
7. Within few seconds, a message will appear on the screen informing you of successful linking of your PAN and UID.
 
8. If your details are not tallying as in your Aadhar card, submit a valid proof and get the details corrected.
 
“Using the above online procedure, you can link your Aadhar card to your PAN card without submitting any documents. Be sure that your details including spellings in your registered details at e-filing site match with that of Aadhar card,” the Aadhaar website said.

Name mismatch on Aadhaar & PAN card

If you have a slightly different name on your Aadhaar and PAN card, the Income Tax Department had eased rules to link the two cards last month. 

Also Read: Income Tax Department eases rules to link Aadhaar to PAN card

Here's how you can do it:

1. Taxpayers can go to www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in.

2. Click on the link on the left pane-> Link Aadhaar

3. Provide PAN, Aadhaar no. and ENTER NAME EXACTLY AS GIVEN IN AADHAAR CARD (avoid spelling mistakes) and submit. 

4. After verification from UIDAI, the linking will be confirmed.