Delhi High Court seeks Central government's response on Ashwini Upadhyay plea to link properties with Aadhaar

The Delhi High Court on Monday directed the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) to file their responses to a plea demanding linking of movable and immovable property documents with Aadhaar. .A division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Yashwant Varma also sought responses from the Ministry of Rural Development and the Ministry of Law. The Court was hearing a plea filed by BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay filed in the year 2019. In September last year, Upadhyay was asked to make the various union government ministries parties to the case. When the case was taken up for hearing on Monday, the bench noted that the registry has raised some defects in Upadhyay's application. The Court then directed him to cure those defects and asked the government authorities to file their responses. Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma appeared for the Central government and said that the case raised an important issue. .The Court will now hear the matter on July 18, 2023. .Upadhyay moved the Court contending that linking of Aadhaar with property documents would curb corruption, black money and benami transactions. The government, he said, is duty bound to take apposite steps to curb corruption and black money and seize benami properties in order to secure the goals set under Article 21 of the Constitution.Linking movable-immovable properties with the owner’s Aadhaar number could be an answer to curb the menace, he submitted.“Black money holders would be forced to declare their unaudited movable and unmovable properties and it will take years to generate that amount of benami property again. Thus, in a long way it will help in putting an end to the black money generation.”.Listing the benefits of the system, Upadhyay further claimed that if the government made it mandatory to link property documents with Aadhaar, it would lead to an increment of 2% in annual growth.“(Linking Aadhaar with property documents) will clean our electoral process, which is dominated by black-money and benami transaction and thrives on a cycle of large black investments, capture of power through foul means, use of political strength to amass private wealth, all with disdain,” the plea added.