The Kerala High Court on Friday August 04,2017 allowed a petitioner to file income tax returns manually without quoting Aadhaar number or Aadhaar enrolment ID, paving the way for more such cases to come up all across the country.
The HC passed an interim order on a writ petition filed by Prasanth Sugathan, legal director of the SFLC, a legal services organisation. In his petition, he had challenged the mandatory requirement to quote Aadhaar number or enrollment ID for filing Income tax returns as per Section 139AA of the amended Income Tax Act, 1961.
To argue his case, he had cited a Supreme Court verdict that said that the Permanent Account Numbers of those applicants without Aadhaar cannot be treated as invalid.
He said that the partial stay granted by the SC in compulsory linking of PAN and Aadhaar would be futile if assesses were forced to quote their Aadhaar number while filing I-T returns. He said he does not have an Aadhaar card yet and does not want to apply for one till the SC decides its constitutional validity.
The court directed the concerned income tax officer to allow the petitioner to file IT Returns manually, without quoting his Aadhaar number or enrolment ID.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court heard the challenge of mandatory linking of Aadhaar to PAN card in two cases. A two-judge bench had held that the PAN cards of those people who are not Aadhaar card holders, and who do not comply with certain legal provision, cannot be “treated as invalid for the time being”.
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