The Supreme Court on Friday asked the government to explain its stand on the move to link social media accounts with Aadhaar and said that it was an issue that needed to be addressed at the earliest.

A bench  of Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose asked the Centre to inform whether it is contemplating any move on framing some policy to regulate social media and linking of social media accounts with Aadhaar by September 24, the next date fixed for hearing.  The bench also said, “at this stage we do not know whether we could decide this issue or the High Court will decide”.

The Bench further said it will not go into the merit of the case and would simply decide the transfer petition filed by Facebook seeking transfer of such cases pending before the High courts of Madras, Bombay and Madhya Pradesh to the top court.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, told the Bench that it has no objection to transfer of the cases from high courts to the apex court.

–India Legal Bureau