UID can curb black money: Centre to SC

NEW DELHI:

The Centre on Tuesday played the “black money” and “terrorism cards” to convince the Supreme Court to modify its order restraining the use of Aadhaar only in public distribution scheme and subsidised LPG cooking fuel.

Senior law officers for the government told a bench headed by justice J Chelameswar that Aadhaar card can help the authorities to curb the massive black money routed through the stock market and prevent terrorist activities in the country.

Attorney general Mukul Rohatgi told the bench that if the top court could sit at 2 am and decide 1993 Mumbai terror convict Yakub Memon’s mercy plea, there was no reason why it can’t vacate the stay immediately on the use of Aadhaar for other government welfare schemes, which involves direct transfer of subsidy into the account of the card holder.

Appearing for market regulator SEBI and telecom regulatory authority (TRAI) additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta told the court that initially production of Aadhaar cards were voluntary but now the regulators wanted to make it mandatory to prevent terrorism in the country. “There is lot of black money which is being routed through the stock market. We want to use Aadhaar cards to prevent the circulation. In the absence of the cards, they (black- money holders) are the beneficiaries. Similarly-Aadhaar would ensure SIM cards are issued to authorized persons”, Mehta said.

Reserve Bank of India, SEBI, IRDA, Pension Fund Regulatory Authority and various state governments have also filed separate applications before the SC to modify its August 11 interim order when it referred the issue of whether right to privacy was a constitutional right or not to a larger bench.