Government has said that the draft legislation to give unique identification number Aadhaar a statutory backing is ready and a decision will be taken at an appropriate time. Addressing the Delhi Economics Conclave, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, he is of the view that the need and utility for Aadhaar has been universally recognised across the political spectrum, state governments and political groups. He said, there couldn't be a situation where Aadhaar is acceptable for certain kind of measures to be adopted by the government but not with regards to others. Mr Jaitley said, if necessary, the draft legislation is already ready for Aadhaar and at some stage the government can take a decision to enforce it. A legal battle over applicability of Aadhaar is pending before the Supreme Court.<br/><br/>Last month, lifting its earlier restriction, the Supreme Court had allowed voluntary use of Aadhaar for welfare programmes including MGNREGA, all pension schemes, provident fund and Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna.<br/><br/>Before the order, the use of Aadhaar was restricted to public distribution system and disbursal of cooking gas subsidy.<br/><br/>According to Unique Identification Authority of India website, 93 crore and 18 lakhs Aadhaar number have been issued so far as against the country population of 121 crore as per 2011 census.