At present, a citizen’s Adhaar Card is linked to their respective PAN Card, Bank Account and online pay wallets under the KYC policy. However, the Supreme Court had questioned the central and state governments to answer if they are planning on linking the same even to the social media accounts of the citizens. It further questioned the government as to explain if there is exercise being done on drafting certain applicable policies, guidelines and Acts accordingly, for the same. This issue had come up in the light of petition filed in by Facebook Inc. which requested the Supreme Court to transfer the petitions filed by users at various State High Courts, to the Supreme Court, for a central hearing.
Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Aniruddha Bose, comprising the bench at Supreme Court, said that it is unclear at this stage as to whether the Supreme Court or the High Court of the respective state shall decide on the issue. However, the bench felt that it is the need of the hour that a decision be taken on the issue at the earliest.
Facebook opined that linking of adhaar to social media accounts will only result in violation of the user’s fundamental liberty. Recently, two writ petitions have been filed in the Madras High Court on the issue of linking Adhaar to social media accounts.
The case has been scheduled for hearing on September 24th, 2019. The bench further stated that the case hearing shall be limited only to the cause of shifting all the petitions filed at various High Courts to a single bench in Supreme Court and not the actual case of linking adhaar to social media user accounts.
