Plea in Supreme Court against linking of mobile numbers with Aadhaar

NEW DELHI: A plea has been moved in Supreme Court challenging the notification of the Department of Telecom on linking of mobile numbers with Aadhaar.

The plea filed by Tehseen Poonawala sought direction for quashing of the notification of March 23, issued by the Department of Telecom (DoT) and holding it "unconstitutional" and "null and void".

It also sought direction to the telecom operators from implementing this notification and destroy the data already collected.

The apex court had on February 6, asked the Centre to put in place within a year an effective mechanism to scrutinise the details of identity of over 100 crore existing and future mobile telephone consumers.

The top court while hearing a PIL filed by Lok Niti Foundation had said it hoped that the procees would be completed in the near future and before the completion of one year.

The court had suggested that the existing pre-paid mobile users, who are 90 per cent of the total mobile users, may be asked to give identity details at the time of re-charge as done while giving fresh SIM cards to users.

The verification has become more important in view of the fact that mobile phones are now being used for banking purposes also, it had said.