The Supreme Court’s ruling restricts the use of the Aadhaar number as eKYC (electronic know-your-customer) to distribution of cooking gas cylinders, kerosene and food grain through the public distribution system. This restriction could have a negative impact on schemes like the biometric attendance, Jan Dhan Yojana, digital certificates, pension payments and more recently the introduction of payments banks, all of which depend on the Adhaar number. The RBI has said that the operations of the payments banks should be technology driven from the very beginning, making the restriction on the Aadhar number an impediment. The apex court made the interim ruling on 11 August in an ongoing hearing where several pleas related to Aadhaar have been clubbed together. While some pleas concerned availing government benefits, other pleas stated that the number itself is violation of an individual’s privacy.