No Change In Aadhaar Post SC Judgement? Enrolment And Update Services At Banks, Post Offices To Stay, Says UIDAI CEO

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ajay Bhushan Pandey has said that enrollment and update services provided at banks and post offices will not be affected by the recent Supreme Court (SC) judgement on Aadhaar, MoneyControl has reported. The Supreme Court had recently ordered that Aadhar is not required for opening bank accounts. The SC had upheld the use of Aadhaar for welfare schemes.

"As Aadhaar is going to be used in the offline mode, for opening bank accounts and other services, and because the use of Aadhaar in Direct Benefit Transfer, Pan-ITR has also been held constitutional, the role of banks is going to be vital in the entire Aadhaar ecosystem. So, Aadhaar enrollment and update activity, undertaken by banks and post offices will continue as it was being done before," the UIDAI chairman told the PTI in an interview.

Further, he added that voluntary use of Aadhaar in banks could be continued for those who don’t have any other identification proof. Banks and post offices have set-up 13,000 branches of Aadhaar centres each. The UIDAI has also called for use of offline verification tools like eAadhaar and QR code that leverage Aadhaar without authentication.