New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday sought Centre’s response on whether the Union government had made Aadhaar card mandatory to avail benefits of social service schemes.

The bench headed by Chief Justice H. L. Dattu, which did not issue a notice to the government on a public interest litigation but asked Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar to apprise it of the stand of the Centre and fixed the matter for further hearing on February 13.

The bench told Ranjit Kumar that it came across a report in the media that the government was rethinking on making Aadhaar card mandatory. Earlier, senior counsel Gopal Subramanium, appearing for the petitioner Mathew Thomas, submitted that despite an interim order passed by the apex court directing the Central government not to insist on Aadhaar cards for providing services/benefits to the citizens, the authorities were insisting on it. He alleged that Aadhaar cards were being issued even to illegal migrants in the country, enabling them to avail government services meant only for Indians.

The petitioner submitted that the collection of personal data under the National Population Register in terms of Section 14-A of the Citizenship Act, 1955 was violative of Articles 14 and 21 to the Constitution and it suffered from the vice of excessive delegation. The collection of such data did not prescribe to what extent private information of citizens would be required and it had been left to the discretion of executive.

The petition alleged that collection of data was being done by agencies whose “security credentials are not scrutinized thoroughly”. The plea maintained that the UID project affected and abridged the rights of citizens, while the government did not have sufficient material to “come to the conclusion that such an incursion on the rights of the citizens was necessary.”