The Central Government had
issued the following orders from time to time regarding adding the Aadhaar
number in Service Records of Central Government Employees.
The Honourable Supreme
Court of India had already clarified that Aadhaar numbers cannot be made
compulsory for Indian citizens. But the Centre had argued that Aadhaar numbers
are necessary for its welfare schemes. The case is pending in the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, without
declaring that Aadhaar numbers are compulsory for all, the central government
has made it compulsory for enjoying the various benefit schemes that are being
offered. This has led to a debate if the centre is indirectly twisting the arms
of the citizens to obtain the Aadhaar number.
In the meantime, an order
was issued by the finance minister of the Delhi state government on Tuesday. It
said that in order to speed up the pension distribution and salary due
payments, certain new clauses have been added to Form 5. Since the order issued
in this regard by the Ministry of Labour Welfare and Training is applicable to
the employees of all the state and union territory governments, the employees
of Delhi state government too are bound by it. Until now, the pensions for the
employees of Delhi state government were given at the Accounts Auditor’s office
of the Ministry of Finance. It has now been made compulsory for all the Delhi
state government employees to submit their Aadhaar numbers. Hence, orders have
been issued to all the employees to add their Aadhaar numbers to their Service
Records.
The Department of Exchequer
of the Ministry of Finance had issued an order on June 2, in which, just
stopping short of saying that Aadhaar card is compulsory for all, it laid
emphasis on possessing the Aadhaar number. That is, as part of the Digital
India plan, and for the issuing of digital life certificate to government
employees, the government is forced to take certain steps. In order to
facilitate these, employees have to now submit their PAN Cards, Aadhaar
numbers, email ID and cellphone numbers in their pension book records. A number
of accounts department in various offices do not bother to confirm if the
employees possess Aadhaar cards. The order says that the offices must insist
that the employees present their Aadnaar number when they begin to draw their
pensions.
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