How to File Income-tax Return without Aadhaar?

March 31, 2018 is the last date for filing of income-tax return (‘ITR’) for two financial years, 2015-16 and 2016-17. This is the last chance for the taxpayers to file the ITR belatedly for those financial years. Except for a few class of taxpayers, all other taxpayers are now required to file the income-tax return electronically. The e-filing portal of Income-tax Dept. requires the taxpayers to mention the Aadhaar number in the ITR and link the Aadhaar with the PAN allotted to him by the Income-tax Dept. Linking process of Aadhaar with PAN and ITR was first introduced by the Finance Act, 2017 by inserting a new section 139AA in the Income-tax Act, 1961. This section requires every person who is eligible to obtain Aadhaar to quote his Aadhaar number in the return of income filed on or after July 1, 2017. If any person does not possess the Aadhaar Number but had applied for the Aadhaar then he can quote Enrolment ID of Aadhaar application Form in the ITR. This provision also requires the linking of Aadhaar with PAN of the taxpayer and in case of failure, the PAN of the taxpayer shall be deemed to be invalid. Therefore, it is now compulsory for every taxpayer to necessarily enroll himself under the Aadhaar Act and obtain Aadhaar number as it is the mandatory requirement under the Income-tax Act. The requirement of linking the two Unique Identification Numbers had always been in the limelight since the date of its inception. Initially taxpayers were unable to link the Aadhaar with PAN due to mismatch in Aadhaar details, shortage of Aadhaar facilitation centers, etc. Considering the matter, CBDT, had allowed taxpayers to link their Aadhaar number with PAN till 31-12-2017, which was further extended till 31-03-2018. The requirement of linking Aadhaar and Income-tax Return/PAN has been challenged at multiple occasions in various High Courts and the Supreme Court. Therefore, the taxpayers are in dilemma whether to link the Aadhaar with Income-tax records or maintain status quo in quarantine till the matter reaches its finality. The Apex Court in case of Binoy Viswam v. Union of India [2017] 82 taxmann.com 211 (SC) had confirmed that taxpayers who would file return of income on or after 01-07-2017 would be required to quote Aadhaar in their ITR. However, the Court had given a partial relief to taxpayers by providing that PAN will not be deemed to be invalid if a taxpayer does not have an Aadhaar or if he does do not wish to obtain an Aadhaar.