Telecom companies may not get time beyond October 15 to comply with the Supreme Court (SC) verdict on Aadhaar linkage. According to a senior official the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is unlikely to extend the date.

After the SC order stating that Aadhaar is not required for certain services such as mobile connections, the UIDAI on Monday asked telecom service providers to submit an alternative system of verification to delink Aadhaar-based authentication in the next 15 days.

If the Authority does not receive any communication to this effect within the deadline, the authentication services will be terminated without further notice, the letter said.

“We have given the date as October 15 for exit plan under Aadhaar Regulations, by when (we believe) they would have brought in alternative systems of KYC services and comply with the orders of the court so that they are not in contempt,” Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Chief Executive Officer, UIDAI told BusinessLine.

Pandey explained, “Now the court has clarified service providers cannot do biometric authentication without mandate of law. And this is why we are saying now there are options without Aadhaar Authentication like E-Aadhaar, QR code and masked Aadhaar card for offline verification which happens without hitting the UIDAI server.”

“People should have a choice. They can give some other valid KYC document such as Voter ID and replace their Aadhaar eKYC . If you unilaterally delete someone’s Aadhaar eKYC data without replacing it with other valid KYC, the phone and bank account may get deactivated because these services require some KYC,” Pandey pointed out.

After telecom, the UIDAI is also studying other sectors and will ensure compliance with the Court order at UIDAI’s end for smooth transition as early as possible. Other sector regulators too need to implement the court’s order without disrupting services to the people, Pandey said.

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