Allowing an appeal filed by the department against the order, Justice A K Sikri and Justice Abdul Nazeer observed that, “The aforesaid order was passed by the High Court having regard to the fact that the matter was pending consideration in this Court. Thereafter, this Court has decided the matter and upheld the vires of section 139AA of the Income Tax Act. In view thereof, the linkage of PAN with Aadhaar is mandatory.”
Note: Aadhaar card and PAN linking due date is also now extended till 30th June 2021 due to the CoronaVirus pandemic.
“Insofar as the assessment year 2018-19 is concerned, learned counsel appearing for the respondents informs that the respondents had filed the income tax returns in terms of the orders of the High Court and the assessment has also been completed. We, therefore, make it clear that for the assessment year 2019-20, the income tax return shall be filed in terms of the judgment passed by this Court,” the bench said.
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Under the Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act, it is mandatory to link the Aadhaar Aadhaar (enrolment ID of Aadhaar application form) with PAN (Permanent Account Number) while filing the income tax returns and it came into existence from 1 July 2017. The PAN card of the individual would be cancelled under the Income Tax Rules whenever the individual assessee didn’t follow the said provision.
Earlier in 2017,1 two-judge bench had passed the bill of Aadhaar linking with the PAN is mandatory at the time of filing the income tax returns. After then, many of the High Courts Delhi, Bombay, Madras, and Kerala had stated to the taxpayers for filing returns manually in case they cannot link their Aadhaar with the PAN.