Attaining adulthood gives a lot of rights to a teenager such as voting, driving, marriage in the case of a girl. Now, there will be additional one — the power to withdraw his/her Aadhaar account and delete all identity details, including biometrics.

A Cabinet note has been prepared in which a provision is proposed to be made in the Aadhaar Act that will give a child on attaining maturity (18 years) the power to withdraw his/her Aadhaar details and thereby asking 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.

According to sources in the know, a Cabinet note has been prepared by the Ministry of Law and Justice on this, and will be tabled at a Cabinet meeting soon.

“The choice will be given to the child once he/she attains the maturity age, and he/she will have only six months to take the final decision,” a senior government official said.

Right now, the unique identity can be created from the infant stage for getting many services and benefits, but there is no provision in the Aadhaar Act for withdrawing from the programme after the child attains adulthood.

When asked, a senior official at Ministry of Law and Justice, confirmed saying, “Yes. Some amendments have been suggested to the Aadhaar Act and a Cabinet note is ready.”

The development comes after the Supreme Court struck down many sections of the Aadhaar Act in its verdict in September. The apex court had upheld the Aadhaar Act as constitutionally valid and said there was sufficient defence mechanism for authentication.

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