Taking a serious note of verified workers not getting paid due to not linking their bank accounts with Aadhaar, the Supreme Court directed the Delhi government to explain which law says bank accounts cannot be operated without Aadhaar.
In an order on 2 April 2025, a bench of justice Abhay Oka and justice Ujjal Bhuyan questioned the Delhi government regarding not paying subsistence allowance to 5,907 eligible workers affected by graded response action plan (GRAP) restrictions since their bank accounts were not linked with Aadhaar.
"The Delhi government will also address this Court on the question whether the verified workers can be denied the amount payable on the ground that their bank accounts are not linked with Aadhaar. This aspect will be considered on 29 April 2025," the bench says.
As per the Prevention of Money-laundering (Maintenance of Records) Third Amendment Rules, 2019, if a citizen wishes to receive any benefit or subsidy under any scheme notified under Section 7 of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 (18 of 2016), it is mandatory to submit Aadhaar number to the bank.
For other banking services, if the customer does not wish to submit an Aadhaar, she may use any other officially valid documents as prescribed by Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Linking bank account with an Aadhaar in this case, is optional and not mandatory, as submitted by the Delhi government before the apex court.
On 26 September 2018, the Supreme Court declared Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act unconstitutional and clarified that bank account-holders, e-wallet or mobile wallet users and mobile subscribers are no longer required to use or link their Aadhaar number with these services.
The apex court clearly ruled that a person or account-holder cannot be forced to link his/ her bank account/s with Aadhaar. "This linking is made compulsory not only for opening a new bank account but even for existing bank accounts with a stipulation that if the same is not done then the account would be deactivated, with the result that the holder of the account would not be entitled to operate the bank account till the time seeding of the bank account with Aadhaar is done. This amounts to depriving a person of his property. We find that this move of mandatory linking of Aadhaar with bank account does not satisfy the test of proportionality," the SC had said.
In June 2019, the Bombay High Court directed Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) to pay interest at the rate of 7.5% on the 30 months' salary of Ramesh R Kurhade held due to the non-linking of Aadhaar.
"None of the contentions would persuade us to deny the interest on the delayed payment of salary. Firstly, because the petitioner was a sole objector can hardly be a ground to test the correctness of his stand. Secondly, the respondents (MbPT) are not in a position to show any authority under which they could have withheld the salary of an employee simply because of pending clarity in the proceedings before the Supreme Court the petitioner refused to divulge his Aadhaar card details. Now that the Supreme Court has given its final verdict pursuant to which his salary is also released, the petitioner must receive reasonable interest on delayed payment,"
a bench of justice Akhil Kureshi and justice SJ Kathawala said in the order.
On 23 December 2015, the Port Trust issued a circular asking all its employees to link their Aadhaar cards to their bank accounts before 15 February 2016 to receive their salaries. MbPT has 800 employees.
All except Mr Kurhade linked their Aadhaar numbers to their bank accounts. Mr Kurhade objected to the circular saying that MbPT cannot insist on Aadhaar linking to release his salary.
Since he did not provide Aadhaar linking details, MbPT did not release his salary from July 2016 for the next 30 months. Mr Kurhade then filed a petition before the Bombay HC. At that time, the permissibility of linking of Aadhaar details with various schemes and payments was under challenge before the Supreme Court.
After the Supreme Court's September 2018 judgement, the MbPT released Mr Kurhade's 30 months’ pending salary without insisting on Aadhaar linking.
Adwait Sethna, counsel for MbPT, contended that the issues were pending before the Supreme Court and the government had directed the Port Trust to link the Aadhaar details of the employees. Mr Kurhade was the sole employee, out of nearly 800 employees, who had objected to this, the counsel told the HC.
The High Court, however rejected the contention saying, "....because the petitioner was a sole objector can hardly be a ground to test the correctness of his stand. ...MbPT are not in a position to show any authority under which they could have withheld the salary of an employee..."
