Supreme court on Monday gives rest to all the ambiguity regarding PAN- Aadhaar linking and validates government’s order, makes pan-Aadhaar linkage necessary to file income tax returns. The supreme court on Monday was hearing a matter filed against the High court’s ruling in which it allowed Jayshree Satpute and Shreya Sen to file income tax returns for assessment year 2018-19 (FY 17-18) without linking Pan to Aadhaar Card.
The government appealed in the Supreme Court and the court decided the matter in their favour, upholding the legal validity of Section 139AA of The Income Tax Act.
“The aforesaid order was passed by the High Court having regard to the fact that the matter was pending for consideration in the court. Therefore, this court has decided the matter and upheld the vires of section 139AA of the Income Tax Act. In view thereof, linking of PAN with Aadhaar is mandatory, the bench comprising A K Sikri and S Abdul Nazeer said.
With this the Supreme court has cleared the ambiguity arising due to the Delhi High court’s order, which allowed few respondents to file returns without linking PAN with Aadhaar.
The supreme court also clarified that those respondents which were allowed by the High Court, from now have to get their PAN linked to Aadhaar to file returns for the Subsequent assessment years. Earlier in September 2018, A constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Mishra, Made Aadhaar legal and also validated its passage as the Money Bill by the Parliament.
The government from the last few years has been pressing on the need to link PAN with Aadhaar, as it claims that it curbs Tax evasion cause a lot of Tax payers try to evade tax returns by making multiple PAN.