HC stays move to make Aadhaar must for wages

Issues notice to state government to file objections to PIL

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court today stayed the government move to make Aadhaar enrolment mandatory for drawing salary and pension.
Issuing a notice the Commissioner Secretary, Jammu and Kashmir Finance Department, a division Bench of the High Court today directed the state government to file its objections to averments made in a public interest litigation (PIL) by lawyers Syed Musaib and Gulbaddin Ahmad Mir.
The orders were issued by a division Bench of Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar and Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey, before whom the PIL was listed today for admission.
“The Supreme Court, in its order dated October 15, 2015, observed that Aadhaar card was purely voluntary and could not be made mandatory till the matter was decided by the Supreme Court in one way or the other,” the HC Bench observed in its orders today.
“Prima facie, it appears that the government order has made possession of Aadhaar card mandatory,” it said, while issuing a notice to the government.
“Subject to objections and till the next date of hearing before the Bench, the operation of the government order is stayed,” said the High Court in its orders.
The petitioner lawyers submitted before the Bench today that since the Aadhaar scheme infringed upon the right to privacy and was a subject matter of the five-Judge Bench of the Supreme Court, the impugned government order “undermines and prejudices” the case in hand in the Supreme Court as well.
In the PIL, the petitioners had challenged the government order dated February 10, 2016, making Aadhaar compulsory after March 31 on the grounds that that the notification of the Finance Department was in “complete violation” of various directions passed by the Supreme Court from time to time on Aadhaar.