Shame on us, we aren't a tax compliant society says SC

The government will try and bring new laws to stop the leakages

"Linking Aadhaar to PAN is an effort by the government to bring new laws to stop leakages," the Supreme Court observed. "When there are tax evasions, the government will try and bring new laws to stop the leakages," the SC also observed.

"We as citizens do not want to pay taxes. Shame on us," the Supreme Court observed while hearing a petition that challenged the government's decision to link Aadhaar with PAN. "We are a kind of society that wants to avoid taxes," the court said while adding that 'we are not a tax-compliant society,' the bench comprising Justice A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said.

When it was pointed out that the SC had said that Aadhaar cannot be made mandatory, the bench said that those were only interim orders. "The interim arrangement was made when there was no law. Now Parliament has enacted a law. Can we preclude Parliament from making a law? Can the interim orders passed by us on certain statements made by them bind them forever? We can definitely examine the validity of the new law on touchstones of the Constitution but there cannot be any injunction against Parliament from enacting a law," the bench noted.

The court also took into consideration the submission by the centre in which it was said that 99 per cent of the Indian population had enrolled under the UID and had Aadhaar cards. "It appears as though only 99 per cent do not have a problem with Aadhaar. Now we will examine the rest," the bench noted.

OneIndia News