The Supreme Court on Wednesday termed the cancellation of around three crore ration cards by the Centre due to non-linking with Aadhaar card as “too serious”, and sought response from the Central government and all states on the issue. A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian said this matter should not be treated as adversarial as it is too serious.

It said the matter will be put up for final hearing. At the outset, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for petitioner Koili Devi, said the petition deals with the larger issue. Devi’s 11-year-old daughter Santoshi died of starvation on September 28, 2018, in Simdega district in Jharkhand. The petition stated that Santoshi, who belonged to a poor Dalit family, died as the local authorities had cancelled the family’s ration card since they failed to link it with Aadhaar.