Aadhaar not mandatory for filing income tax returns: Gujarat High Court

A Division Bench of Gujarat HC also directed the tax department to accept ITR of a lawyer, who had filed the petition. The Bench also noted that the Aadhaar matter is pending before the Supreme Court.

In his plea, Khemchand Rajaram Koshti, the lawyer submitted that quoting Aadhaar number has been made mandatory by the tax department. However, he said since he neither have Aadhaar number nor had he applied for one, he was facing difficulties while filing his tax returns.

Last month, the Delhi High Court, while giving relief to two professionals, Shreya Sen and Jayshree Satpute, from quoting Aadhaar number for filing their ITR, directed the I-T Department to provide an additional button on its tax-filing portal to allow filing of tax returns without Aadhaar number. However, this has not yet implemented by the tax authorities.

Separately, the Madras High Court also allowed nine petitioners to file their ITRs without quoting their Aadhaar or enrolment numbers. The Division Bench of Justices MM Sundresh and Anand Venkatesh opined that an order allowing the filing of manual returns would not be prejudicial to the I-T authorities. The Court observed that if the Supreme Court decides to uphold the Constitutionality of Aadhaar, then the petitioners would have to file their ITR again by quoting Aadhaar.

Even as the Aadhaar matter is pending before the five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, various departments of the government are issuing circulars to make Aadhaar mandatory. As per Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act, assessees are required to quote their Aadhaar Card number or the Aadhaar enrolment number when filing ITRs.