Aadhaar card can be used to for availing the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act, Jan-Dhan Yojana, provident funds and pension schemes among other services.

The Aadhaar Card may be used to avail government schemes including employment guarantee, pension and bank accounts, the Supreme Court said today.

Earlier, as per the court's order, the card could have been used only for availing subsidies under the public distribution system and purchasing kerosene and cooking gas and that, too, voluntarily.

Today's order is seen as a relief to the government which has been trying to persuade the Supreme Court to extend Aadhaar's uses after a slew of blows to the unique identity or UID programme following privacy petitions.

After today's order, the Aadhaar card can be used to for availing the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act, Jan-Dhan Yojana, provident funds and pension schemes among other services.

The Centre, Reserve Bank of India, stock market watchdog SEBI, telecom regulator TRAI, and a number of states had moved the Supreme Court for extending the voluntary use of Aadhaar card to other services.

The government's ambitious UID scheme has been challenged in court over privacy concerns since it uses biometric data like fingerprint and iris scans.
 
The court has already referred a related debate over whether privacy is a fundamental right to a constitution bench.

Representing petitioners Justice KS Puttaswamy and an NGO, Nagarik Chetna Manch, lawyer Shyam Diwan argued that Right to Privacy, whether it is for the poor or the illiterate, is "sacrosanct and can't be compromised".