The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has once again asked the individuals to link their Aadhaar to PAN for the purpose of filing income tax returns (ITR). The mandatory linking has to be completed by 31 March 2019.

"Constitutional validity of Aadhaar has been upheld by the Supreme Court of India in September, 2018. Consequently, in terms of Section 139AA of Income Tax Act, 1961 and order dated June 30, 2018 of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, Aadhaar-PAN linking is mandatory now which has to be completed till March 31, 2019 by PAN holders requiring filing of ITR," the CBDT said in an advisory.

On 6 February, the Supreme Court has confirmed that linking Aadhaar with PAN was mandatory for filing ITR.

This reiteration of the September order of the apex court came after an appeal filed by the Centre against a Delhi High Court order allowing two persons, to file their ITRs for 2018-19 without linking their Aadhaar and PAN numbers.

A bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and S Abdul Nazeer said the top court has already decided the matter and upheld the section 139AA of the Income Tax Act.

Section 139 AA (2) of the Income Tax Act says that every person having PAN as on July 1, 2017, and eligible to obtain Aadhaar, must intimate his Aadhaar number to tax authorities.

Earlier this month at an event, the former CBDT Chairman Sushil Chandra said that the Income Tax department had issued 42 crore permanent account numbers (PAN) so far, of which 23 crore have been linked with Aadhaar.

With inputs from PTI