supreme court, supreme court on aadhaar and pan, linking aadhaar with pan, income tax returns with aadhaar
A television journalist sets his camera inside the premises of the Supreme Court in New Delhi February 18, 2014.Reuters file

There are five key takeaways from the Supreme Court order on linking 16-digit unique identity number (Aadhaar) with permanent account number (PAN).

1. You need not compulsorily have Aadhaar for filing your income tax returns.

2. If you don't have Aadhaar, you won't face penal action in the context of income tax returns.

3. If you have both — Aadhaar and PAN — you must link the two while filing income tax returns.

4. Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act — introduced via an amendment to the Finance Act 2017 —which makes it compulsory for Aadhaar and PAN to be interlinked for income tax returns, won't be applied with retrospective effect. This means that your previous income tax returns won't be rendered invalid just because Aadhaar was not linked to PAN.

5. If you have applied for Aadhaar and yet to get one (the 16-digit number), you need not mention it while filing your income tax returns this year.

The judgement was passed on Friday by a two-judge bench comprising AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan in response to a clutch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act.