The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Centre to link the Aadhaar card with the public distribution system (PDS) and LPG. But the court made it clear that Aadhaar will not be mandatory for availing any social benefit scheme. The court said that the government was at liberty to use Aadhaar for PDS, especially distribution of food grains, kerosene oil and LPG with the rider that possession of the card will not be a condition for according benefits.


It asked the government to give wide publicity in print and electronic media to let people know that it is not mandatory to obtain Aadhaar card.


Further, personal information of the card holders will not be shared with any agency for any purpose, except for criminal investigation, as per the court.


The interim order was passed by a three-judge bench led by Justice J Chelameswar as it referred the matter to a Constitution bench for determining whether right to privacy is a fundamental right.


The bench noted there were apparently unresolved contradictions in the previous judgements of the top court and hence an authoritative pronouncement was required. The Centre had pressed for referring the issue to a larger bench, arguing while the Constitution did not mention privacy as a fundamental right, various judgements had taken divergent views.