The Supreme Court has said as many as 10.52 lakh bogus PAN cards of individual income tax assesses, which is around 0.4 per cent of the total such documents, cannot be termed a<br/>"minuscule" number to harm the country's economy. The bench said, the Court cannot go by percentage figures.<br/> <br/>The apex court said that it has come on record that 11.35 lakh duplicate or fraudulent permanent account numbers have been detected and out of these, 10.52 lakh cases pertain to<br/>individual assesses. <br/>Dealing with the submissions advanced by Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi that duplicate PANs were used to divert funds to shell companies, the Bench said, the fact remains that companies are after all floated by individuals and these individuals have to produce documents to show their identity.<br/>The Court made the observations in a 157-page judgement while upholding the validity of section 139AA of the Income Tax Act making Aadhaar mandatory for allotment of PAN cards and filing of tax returns.

The Supreme Court has said as many as 10.52 lakh bogus PAN cards of individual income tax assesses, which is around 0.4<br/>per cent of the total such documents, cannot be termed a<br/>"minuscule" number to harm the country's economy. The bench, also comprising Justice Ashok Bhushan, said, the Court cannot go by percentage figures. <br/>The apex court said that it has come on record that 11.35 lakh duplicate or fraudulent permanent account numbers have been detected and out of these, 10.52 lakh cases pertain to individual assesses. Dealing with the submissions advanced by Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi that duplicate PANs were used to divert funds to shell companies, the Bench said, the fact remains that companies are after all floated by individuals and these individuals have to produce documents to show their identity.<br/>The Court made the observations in a 157-page judgement while upholding the validity of section 139AA of the Income Tax Act making Aadhaar mandatory for allotment of PAN cards and filing of tax returns.