Arvind Kejriwal delinks Aadhaar with widow, old age pensions

With the debate over Aadhaar making mandatory for every welfare scheme still being questioned, Aam Aadmi Party-led Arvind Kejriwal government has decided to delink Aadhaar in order to access benefits due to widows and pensioners. The Delhi Chief Minister took on Twitter and informed about his government’s decision on Tuesday.

Making his voice loud and clear, Kejriwal wrote, “Lot of people suffering due to the inability of banks to link Aadhaar with the bank account. Today, Cabinet decided to delink Aadhaar from the widow and age-old pension.” Kejriwal’s comments was an addition to observations made by the Supreme Court in March, where the bench questioned the mandatory use of Aadhaar for drawing pensions by retired government employees.

The apex court had then said that making the Aadhaar mandatory for the pension purposes is unfair to the people who have rendered years of service in the discharge of their official duties in the government. Observing the matter,  Justice A K Sikri had asked, “Pension is an entitlement and not a benefit under social schemes. How is it included under section 7 of the Aadhaar Act, 2016? Many pensioners live with children settled abroad. Can such category of pensioners be told that would not be granted pension unless they have Aadhaar card?”

Other judges too reacted in a similar way and one of the justice gave example of his late father the former Chief Justice of India Y V Chandrachud. Justice D Y Chandrachud had said, “There are those old persons whose biometrics do not match with the Aadhaar data. Where do they go? The government must explain steps being taken to eliminate the financial exclusion of legitimate beneficiaries.”