Aadhaar-mobile number linking deadline extended to March 31, 2018, so no hurry now

In interim relief to millions of phone users in India, the Supreme Court on Friday morning ruled that deadline to link Aadhaar with mobile phone numbers will be extended to March 31, 2018. Until now, the deadline was February 6, 2018. The interim order came because the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a petition that challenges most of the Aadhaar linking with various services plans as unconstitutional in January.

The court will hear challenge to government's plan to link Aadhaar with mobile phones, life insurance schemes, school admissions, PAN card, bank accounts, scholarships and other services from January 17 and will hopefully give a final verdict before March 31.

Along with extending the deadline to link mobile phone numbers with Aadhaar card, the court also ordered that almost all of these linking programmes need to have their deadlines extended to March 31, including programme to link bank accounts and PAN card with Aadhaar. In simple words what this means is:

-- You don't have to panic and link your mobile phone number with Aadhaar number. You can safely ignore all those pesky SMS from companies like Airtel and Vodafone.

-- You don't have to panic and link your bank accounts with Aadhaar, or link PAN card with Aadhaar number. Here too you can safely ignore all those pesky messages and calls from banks like HDFC.

Also Read: Aadhaar linking with bank accounts: New deadline is March 31 and other key points you need to know

-- For now, it is NO longer mandatory to link your Aadhaar number to most of the services. At least until March 31, there is interim relief.

-- Now, all depends on the case that will be heard from January 17. The order in that case will decide where and how you will have to link your Aadhaar card.

Two days before the SC order came, the government had decided to extend the linking of bank accounts and PAN with Aadhaar number to March 31. This was probably done to save the face in court hearing. The earlier deadline was December 31.

In fact, the government has repeatedly extended the deadlines for linking Aadhaar with various services including PAN card, although it has done so at the last minute, after creating all the confusion and panic. With messages and calls sent to people for linking their mobile phone numbers and bank accounts with Aadhaar, a sort of panic was created. In fact, many messages from telecom companies and banks virtually threatened with closure of accounts or disconnection of mobile services in cases they did not link Aadhaar. This actually forced many to link their phone numbers and bank accounts to Aadhaar number, even though it is not mandatory for now.