New Delhi, Dec 15: Supreme Court on Friday has passed an interim order agreeing to Centre’s submissions of the deadline of linking Aadhaar with all schemes till March 31.

The five-judge Constitution bench of Supreme Court that passed the interim order, also extended the date of linking of Aadhaar with mobile numbers.

A five-judge Constitutional bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said the final hearing on the petitions would commence from January 17 next year.

Today’s hearing on the mandatory linking of Aadhaar with bank accounts, mobile numbers and various other schemes started at 10:30 am.

The Centre had earlier this month extended the deadline for mandatory linking of the Unique Identification number to avail various services and welfare schemes up to March 31 next year.

 five-judge Constitution bench of Supreme Court passed the interim order, also extended the linking of #Aadhaar with mobile phone

Earlier on October 30, the apex court referred all the Aadhaar related cases to the five-judge Constitutional bench to be formed by the end of November.

Earlier the court had tagged 22 cases to be heard by a smaller bench.

The cases challenge several aspects of Aadhaar, including the use of data collected under the unique identification programme. (ANI)