New Delhi, March 28: The government has extended the deadline for linking of Aadhaar with welfare schemes to June 30, 2018. Earlier, the deadline to link the 12-digit biometric to welfare schemes was March 31, 2018. Earlier on Wednesday, the Supreme Court had refused to pass an interim order extending the deadline of March 31 for linking of Aadhaar with the welfare schemes where benefits are transferred to citizens from the Consolidated Fund of India.

According to a report by PTI, the top court had on March 13 extended indefinitely the March 31 deadline for linking bank accounts and mobile phone numbers with Aadhaar. However, it had allowed the government and its agencies to link the 12-digit national biometric identifier number of the beneficiaries for transfer of benefits of schemes funded from this fund.

A plea, seeking extension of time beyond March 31 for linking Aadhaar with welfare schemes, was made on Wednesday before a five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra after Ajay Bhushan Pandey, CEO of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), concluded his PowerPoint presentation (PPT), claiming it would take "billions of years" to decrypt the saved data, including the biometrics. As per PTI report, senior advocate K V Viswanath, appearing for a petitioner opposed to the Aadhaar scheme, took a cue from the PPT in which the UIDAI CEO said that the success rate of Aadhaar authentication in government systems was 88 per cent.

On Tuesday, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Tuesday extended the deadline for the PAN-Aadhaar linking to June 30. The policy-making body of the tax department issued an order extending the deadline from the current last date of March 31. The order said the deadline for PAN-Aadhaar linking for filing I-T returns is being extended after "consideration of the matter".

The apex court ordered for the extension in the deadline till the five-judge constitution bench delivers its judgment on petitions challenging the validity of the biometric scheme and the enabling law.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 28, 2018 07:14 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).