(V. Gopala Gowda and Adarsh Kumar Goel, JJ.)
All Bengal Minority Students Council and Anr. __________ Petitioner(s)
v.
Union of India and Ors. ___________________________ Respondent(s)
(with appln. (s) for interim relief and office report)
Writ Petition(s)(Civil) No(s). 686/2016, decided on September 14, 2016
The Order of the court was delivered by
Order
1. Heard learned senior counsel for the petitioners.
2. Our attention was invited to Para 5 of the order dated 15.10.2015 passed by this Court, which reads thus:
“5. We will also make it clear that the Aadhaar card Scheme is purely voluntary and it cannot be made mandatory till the matter is finally decided by this Court one way or the other.”
3. Learned senior counsel for the petitioners has also invited our attention to the relevant portion of Para 3 of the letter dated 14.07.2016, written to the Chief Secretary/Administrator of all State Governments/UT Administration, by the Under Secretary to the Government of India by which the following directions are given to the students, which reads thus:
“3………Only Online application under the Scheme will be accepted and no request for Offline applications will be entertained. It may be noted that submission of Aadhaar is mandatory.”
4. Learned senior counsel submits that the aforesaid directions are contrary to the interim order passed by the Constitution Bench and therefore, to that extent they are not tenable in law.
5. Having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case, the material evidence available on record and the submissions made by learned senior counsel we stay the operation and implementation of letters dated 14.07.2006 (i.e. Annexure P-5, P-6 and P-7) for Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme, Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme and Merit-cum-Means Scholarship Scheme to the extent they have made submission of Aadhaar mandatory and direct the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India i.e. Respondent No. 2 to remove Aadhaar number as a mandatory condition for student Registration form at the National Scholarship Portal of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India at the website http://scholarships.gov.in/newStudentRegFrm and stay the implementation of clause (c) of the ‘Important Instructions’ of the advertisement dated 20.08.2016 for the Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme, Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme and Merit-cum-Means Scholarship Scheme, during the pendency of this writ petition.
6. Issue notice.
———
