Litigants who regularly file cases in the Madras High Court and argue them in person without engaging lawyers have begun to complain that the Registry was now insisting upon them to produce photocopies of their Aadhaar as well as PAN cards as a precondition to number their cases.
A. Narayanan of Change India, a non governmental organisation, claimed that the High Court Registry had refused to take two of his public interest litigation petitions on file because he could not produce his Aadhaar card. “How can I produce it when I have not even applied for Aadhaar so far?” he questioned.
According to him, the court staff cited instructions issued to them by their superiors and told him that Aadhaar had been mandatory to file cases. Stating he did not face such an issue all along though he had filed several cases in the past, he rued: “Now, all of a sudden, I am unable to access the court on public issues.”
Similarly, G. Devarajan, another litigant known for filing and arguing cases on his own, said the Registry numbered a recent writ petition filed by him only after he produced photocopies of his Aadhaar as well as PAN cards. “When I questioned the need for Aadhaar, I was told that my case would not be numbered without it,” he said.
Though several attempts were made to obtain the reaction of the top officials of the High Court, they refused to talk anything on the subject.
