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The Union Cabinet on Monday gave its nod to amend the Aadhaar Act in line with the Supreme Court directive. The proposed amendment will allow voluntary use of the Aadhaar number for verification by private companies, a senior official said.
The proposed amendments will now be considered by both houses of Parliament. The Supreme Court had struck down Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act.
The amendments also include a provision that gives a child, on attaining maturity (18 years), the power to withdraw his/her Aadhaar details and thereby ask the Unique Authority of India (UIDAI) to strike down all the details from its servers. This will mean the UIDAI will have to delete all the data, including biometrics of the person who withdraws from the scheme.
Meanwhile, offline verification system of Aadhaar is expected to be in place within a few weeks, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chief Ajay Bhushan Pandey said.
Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique identity number that can be obtained by residents of India, based on their biometric and demographic data.
“Work is in progress to facilitate offline verification for KYC (Know Your Customer) through means such as QR (Quick Response) Code or e-Aadhaar. Service providers will also be required to make some changes at their end,” Pandey said.
Verification through Aadhaar for opening bank account or getting mobile connection has been considered as cost effective. But, they — banks, telecos, and NBFCs — cannot take biometric authentication. Biometric authentication refers to establishing identity through giving finger prints or even iris. Such a mechanism is completed with affirmation from UIDAI server. Now, offline measures such QR code, masked Aadhaar or e-Aadhaar have been proposed. QR code is available on the Aadhaar card or printout.
The QR code, which can also be downloaded from the UIDAI Web site, contains demographic information and photograph of the resident, but not the Aadhaar number.
Data security
In addition, the information in the QR code is made secure and tamper-proof with UIDAI digital signatures. This too can be used for services if the service provider has the QR code reader application downloaded from the UIDAI Web site. Masked Aadhaar refers to printout of unique identity where you can mask details such as date of birth, mobile number or even first eight digit of number. e-Aadhaar can be sent in .XML format which can be opened by the receiver through OTP which can be used to confirm with the sender. All these means can be used without hitting the UIDAI server.
However, the masked Aadhaar or QR Code form of identification cannot be used for government welfare schemes such as LPG subsidy, pension or Ayushman Bharat because that requires beneficiaries to furnish their full Aadhaar details and undergo authentication and that has been permitted by the apex court.
On whether offline usage of Aadhaar will be legal, Pandey claimed that offline verification will stand legal scrutiny. “The Attorney General (AG) has put this (legality of offline verification) on record,” he said adding that all the regulators are on board in facilitating use of offline tools for authentication. The UIDAI chief assured that there will be no compromise on privacy of over 120 crore citizens who have Aadhaar and all precaution will be taken to continue with that.
As on date, total of 122,97,04,209 unique identity numbers have been issued.
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