Linking of Aadhaar to existing bank accounts postponed indefinitely

On 12.12.2017, Central Government, in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India, made the Prevention of Money Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Seventh Amendment Rules, 2017, thereby replacing the requirement of submitting “the Aadhaar number and Permanent Account Number by December 31, 2017” under proviso (a) to Rule 9(17) of the Prevention of Money Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Rules, 2005 with “submit the Aadhaar number, and Permanent Account Number or Form No. 60, by such date as may be notified by the Central Government.”

As a consequence, the proviso (c) to the said Rule, will now read as:

“Provided that in case the client already having an account based relationship with reporting entities prior to the date of publication of this notification in the official gazette fails to submit the Aadhaar number and PAN by such date as may be notified by the central government, the said account shall cease to be operational till the time the Aadhaar number and Permanent Account Number is submitted by the client.”

The said Amendment Rules have come into force after the Central Government submitted before the Supreme Court on 07.12.2017 that it will extend the deadline for linking Aadhaar  from 31.12.2017 to 31.03.2018, after  Senior Advocate Shyam Divan asked the Court to hear the matter urgently for interim relief as the deadline for Aadhaar linking was approaching. The Court accepted the submission and the Aadhaar matter will now be heard by a Constitution Bench tomorrow for interim relief.