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.