New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday asked the government to explain if it is contemplating any move to link social media accounts with Aadhaar. A bench headed by Justice Deepak Gupta asked the Centre to inform it of this by September 24, the next date fixed for the hearing, as it took up a plea by Facebook seeking transfer of various petitions from different high courts to the top court.
In Friday’s hearing, the bench said that it will not hear merits related to the issue but focus on the question of transfer of various petitions pending in different high courts.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who was representing the Centre, said the government has no objection to transfer of the cases from high courts to the top court.
Facebook has said that the transfer of cases would serve the interests of justice by avoiding the possibility of conflicting decisions from the high courts.
It told the apex court that two petitions had been filed in the Madras HC and one each in the Bombay and Madhya Pradesh High Courts, and sought a stay on all these proceedings. The top court, in the last hearing, has not stayed proceedings in the high courts but restrained them from passing any final order.
All the pleas in the three high courts have sought a declaration that Aadhaar or any other government-authorised identity proof should be made mandatory to authenticate social media accounts. “All the common cases seek similar relief and involve the similar question of law,” Facebook said in its plea. (IANS)
