In a jolt to the Centre, the Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to modify its interim order and allow bodies such as the RBI and SEBI and some States to allow voluntary use of Aadhaar cards for welfare schemes other than the public distribution system (PDS) and LPG schemes.

A Bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar, which had already referred the batch of pleas challenging the Aadhaar scheme on the question of right to privacy, made it clear that all applications seeking “modification, clarification and relaxation” of its August 11 interim order will be heard by the Constitution Bench.

“We are of the opinion that it is better that these applications for modification are also heard by a larger Bench,” the three-judge Bench, which also comprised Justices SA Bobde and C Nagappan, said. On August 11, the apex court had said that the Aadhaar card will remain optional for making use of welfare schemes of the government and that the authorities could not use it for purposes other than the PDS and LPG distribution system.

The Centre, the RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, TRAI, Pension Fund Regulatory Authority and States such as Gujarat and Jharkhand had recently moved the court and pitched strongly for voluntary use of Aadhaar cards so that the aged and weaker sections could avail of benefits of various schemes other than PDS and LPG at their doorsteps.

At the outset, the Bench had raised a question over whether it could entertain such interim applications after transferring the main petitions to a Constitution Bench to decide on issues such as right to privacy. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi referred to the fact that as on August 21, over 90 crore citizens had already been issued Aadhaar cards.

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