Aadhaar number made compulsory in all government service records

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.