The Telangana High Court has faulted the government for not abiding by the assurances given to the court with regard to registration of non-agricultural properties.
The court said the government had assured that there would be no insistence on submission of Aadhar number for either slot booking or for generating Property Tax Index Number, but failed in its implementation. It was not proper on the part of the government to insist on Aadhar number for obtaining PTIN.
The court instructed the government not to elicit Aadhar and personal information for the process. The Bench comprising Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy however permitted the government to continue the registration processes through identification documents other than Aadhar.
The judges directed the government to take steps to remove the provision insisting on Aadhar number from the software deployed for the registration processes. The Bench also took exception to the officials insisting on Aadhar number in the summary transactions. The Bench reiterated that there should not be any insistence on production of Aadhar numbers. The government could instead seek any other document for identification.
Advocate General B.S. Prasad informed the court that the Cabinet sub-committee constituted to study registration related aspects would take the court’s directions into consideration. He sought one week’s time from the court for carrying out necessary changes in the software and the court accordingly posted the matter after a week.
