The Centre on Monday assured the Supreme Court that it will look into the problems faced by a transgender person in linking Aadhaar number with PAN card. The Centre’s counsel told a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra that there was no legal impediment to this and it appeared to be a technical glitch which can be sorted out, and sought four-weeks’ time for this. Senior advocate C U Singh, who appeared for petitioner Satyashri Sharmila, said that unlike Aadhaar which had a separate category for third gender, PAN did not have any such category. This made it impossible for transgenders to link the two, he contended.

Due to this, the I-T department had already rejected the income tax return filed by his client, Singh said, adding this could make the petitioner criminally liable. He said the petitioner had made representations to the government, but they were ignored. But the Centre countered this, saying the petitioner was presuming that action would be taken for non-filing. “Not even one notice has been issued over this,” the Centre’s counsel said. The court asked the Centre’s counsel to come back with instructions on April 23.