The Gujarat high court said that a person’s Income Tax (I-T) permanent account number (PAN) does not become invalid for filing income tax returns and making transactions just because it is not linked to their Aadhaar card.
The HC said the government cannot make a PAN inoperative or hold the PAN holder to be a defaulter just because their PAN was not linked to their Aadhaar or their Aadhaar number was not quoted till the Supreme Court decides the validity of the Aadhaar Act, which is pending in the form of a reference before a larger bench.
The HC made it clear that until the apex court decides the issue of the Aadhaar Act’s validity as a money bill in Rojer Mathew v/s South Indian Bank Ltd, the government cannot take action against PAN holders for not linking them with their Aadhaar ID, under Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act.
The HC recently passed this order on a petition filed by advocate Bandish Soparkar in 2017, when the central government had issued the diktat mandating linking of PAN with Aadhaar. On March 31, 2019, the central government set a deadline of September 30 for this.
Soparkar submitted before the HC that parting with biometric data by linking his PAN with Aadhaar would cause irreparable damage to him. If his PAN was suspended for not linking it with Aadhaar, he would not be able to operate his account. Since the reference before the SC will have direct impact on the issue, his petition also cannot be decided till the SC decides the reference. #casansaar (Source - TNN, Times of India)
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