Is it mandatory for everyone to link their Aadhaar card with their PAN Card?

According to the Supreme Court of India, if you do not have an Aadhaar or do not wish to get an Aadhaar as of now, you don’t need to worry, at least for now. Your PAN will not be canceled in such a case. "Only a partial relief by the court has been given to those who do not have Aadhaar and who do not wish to obtain Aadhaar for the time being, that their PAN will not be cancelled so that other consequences under the I-T Act for filing to quote PAN may not arise," said CBDT in its circular.

Eventually, however, you will have to get and quote your biometric number while filing your returns or even for those who are applying for PAN cards or opening bank accounts and the link.

Keep in mind, that though now your PAN will not be invalid due to a non-Aadhaar linkage, it has to be quoted in all banking / financial transactions. Even if you are not required to file income tax returns if your income is below exemption limit but possess both PAN and Aadhaar cards, it is mandatory to link both.

The court does not provide any relief to those who already have both PAN and Aadhaar. You will have to link both.

There have been instances where people want to link their Aadhaar and Pan, but are not able to do so, due to a spelling error on one of the cards. In such cases, if you need to get a correction made either in your PAN or Aadhaar card, you can visit National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) website and UIDAI (AAdhaar) portal respectively.

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