The Supreme Court agrees to the Centre's submissions of the deadline of linking Aadhaar with all schemes till March 31, 2018. The five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court passed the interim order and also extended the linking of Aadhaar with mobile phones.

The Centre had yesterday offered to extend the deadline from December 31, 2017.

The apex court was hearing a host of petitions challenging the Constitutional validity of the Aadhaar Act.

Yesterday, a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said the final hearing on the petitions challenging the Aadhaar scheme itself would commence from January 17 next year.

Attorney General K K Venugopal, representing the Centre, said the government was willing to extend the deadline up to March 31 next year for mandatory linking of the national biometric identifier to avail the benefit of various services and welfare measures.

Venugopal, however, told the bench, that Aadhaar should be allowed to remain mandatory for the opening of new bank accounts.