HC adjourns plea to quash GO issued for linking Aadhaar with EB

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Wednesday adjourned a petition filed for a direction to quash the Government Order issued by the State government mandating the public to link Aadhaar authentication with the electricity consumption consumer billing number.

The first bench of Acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy passed the direction on hearing a petition filed by ML Ravi, advocate and president for Desiya Makkal Sakthi Katchi.

The petitioner submitted that as per the GO issued by the state government on October 6, for availing the subsidies, the consumers should link Aadhaar Authentication with the electricity consumption consumer billing number.

“It was stated that if the Aadhaar was not linked with the electricity service connection, the consumers could not even make the electricity bill payment. The Tangedco website and other government platforms did not reveal anything about the alternate documents for the Aadhar for obtaining the benefits. It is noted that no Act or Rule was framed in this regard,” the petitioner submitted.

He further added that the scheme is impractical for rental houses as the tenants would change and there will be difficulties in updating the Aadhaar number every time when the tenants are changing.

Since the advocate for the petitioner requested the ACJ to adjourn the matter to tomorrow for making further submissions, the bench adjourned the matter to Thursday.