Aadhaar not mandatory for bank account, mobile connection: Key takeaways

The Supreme Court on Wednesday declared government's Aadhaar scheme as Constitutionally valid and also struck down Section 57 of Aadhaar Act permitting private entities to avail Aadhaar data. "Robust data protection regime has to be brought in place as early as possible," Justice Sikri said while reading out the majority judgement.

The court said that the Aadhaar authentication data cannot be stored for more than six months.

The apex court's five-judge Constitution bench said Aadhaar means unique and it is better to be unique than being best. The first of the three judgements was pronounced by Justice A K Sikri. Justice Sikri pronounced the judgement for himself, Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice A M Khanwilkar.

Here are the key takeaways:

1. Individuals and corporates cannot collect Aadhaar data

2. Government not to give Aadhaar to illegal immigrants

3. Aadhaar need not be made compulsory for school admissions

4. Linking Aadhaar to telecom services unconstitutional

5. No person can be denied govt benefits only due to absence of Aadhaar

6. No need to link bank accounts, mobile numbers to Aadhaar

7. Aadhaar card is mandatory for PAN linking, Income Tax return

8. Aadhaar can be passed as Money Bill

9. Nothing in Aadhaar Act that violates right to privacy of individual

10. No child can be denied benefits of any schemes on not being able to bring their Aadhaar number

11. CBSE, NEET, UGC cannot make Aadhaar mandatory, also not compulsory for school admissions

UIDAI introduces 'Virtual ID' to avoid sharing of your Aadhaar number

In a bid to address privacy concerns, the UIDAI on Wednesday introduced a new concept of 'Virtual ID' which Aadhaar-card holder can generate from its website and give for various purposes, including SIM verification, instead of sharing the actual 12-digit biometric ID.

This will give the users the option of not sharing their Aadhaar number at the time of authentication.
The Virtual ID, which would be a random 16-digit number, together with biometrics of the user would give any authorised agency like a mobile company, limited details like name, address and photograph, which are enough for any verification.
Officials said a user can generate as many Virtual IDs as he or she wants. The older ID gets automatically cancelled once a fresh one is generated.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has also introduced the concept of 'limited KYC' under which it will only provide need-based or limited details of a user to an authorised agency that is providing a particular service, say, a telco.

The Virtual ID will be a temporary and revocable 16 digit random number mapped to a person's Aadhaar number and the Aadhaar-issuing body will start accepting it from March 1, 2018.
From June 1, 2018, it will be compulsory for all agencies that undertake authentication to accept the Virtual ID from their users.
Agencies that do not migrate to the new system to offer this additional option to their users by the stipulated deadline will face financial disincentives.