Constitution Art. 21 — the law in short
What the courts have decided on section Constitution Art. 21, in one screen. Read this first; open an entry when you need the facts, the reasoning and the source.
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Binoy Viswam v Union of India
Supreme CourtCuts both ways
Is the Aadhaar-PAN requirement in s.139AA valid, and can my existing PAN be cancelled under it?
Valid, with one limited relief. Section 139AA was upheld against Article 14, the classification being rationally connected to eliminating duplicate and fake PANs, and against Article 19(1)(g) as a reasonable restriction saved by Article 19(6); the Article 21 privacy challenge was expressly left to the Constitution Bench. The only relief was that the consequence in s.139AA(2) of treating a PAN as invalid could not operate retrospectively so as to unsettle completed transactions of existing PAN holders who had not enrolled.
Listed strongest first: Supreme Court, then High Court, then Tribunal, then CBDT. Nothing here has yet been read in full by a chartered accountant — open an entry to see where it came from.