Delhi HC asks Union, Delhi governments to consider plea to link property ownership to Aadhaar

Delhi High Court asks Union & Delhi governments to consider petition to link Aadhaar with property documents to curb corruption & 'benami' transactions.

The Delhi High Court on Thursday asked the Union and Delhi governments to consider, as a representation, a petition to link immovable and movable property documents of citizens with their Aadhaar numbers, in order to curb corruption, black money generation, and ‘benami’ transactions.

While asking the Union and Delhi governments to decide on the representation within three months, the High Court said that these were policy decisions in which the courts could not direct the government.

“These are policy decisions; how can the courts tell them to do this? Prima facie, what I don’t understand is that these are the areas we don’t have the complete picture or data, what are the various aspects that may emerge... Best is to let them treat it as a representation and let them decide,” the High Court said.

In his plea, petitioner and lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay claimed that if a citizen’s Aadhaar was linked to their properties, corruption would reduce by 25%. Mr. Upadhyay argued that it was the duty of the State to take appropriate steps to curb corruption and seize ‘benami’ properties gained through illegal means, in order to send a strong message that the government is determined to fight against corruption and black money generation.

“If government link property with Aadhaar, it will lead to an increment of two per cent in annual growth. It 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 of the citizen,” the plea said.

The plea claimed that ‘benami’ transactions in high denomination currencies were used for illegal activities, such as terrorism, naxalism, separatism, gambling, money laundering, and bribery. “It also inflates the price of essential commodities as well as major assets like real estate and gold. These problems can be curbed up to great extent by linking movable-immovable properties with the owner’s Aadhaar number,” it added.