Bye Bye Aadhaar – You Can Withdraw and Opt Out of Aadhaar Soon

In a major development, Government of India is considering a proposal to withdraw Aadhaar numbers and related data, if anybody wants to do so. The Central Government is likely to amend the Aadhaar Act to this extent with some conditions. The thinking is followed by Supreme Court judgement in September 2018 which upheld Aadhaar with certain conditions.

No Aadhaar for Verification:

The Supreme Court, in a major decision has struck down Section 57 of Aadhaar on the grounds of private entities misusing data. The court has also judged that asking for Aadhaar to link it with SIM cards, bank accounts is unconstitutional.

Proposal by UIDAI:

UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) has proposed to the Government of India to leave the choice of enrolling for Aadhaar to the citizens. UIDAI has mentioned in its proposal that the adult who acquired 18 years of age will be given 6 months time to decide whether he / she want Aadhaar or not.

The Law Ministry on the other hand has asked that the option to withdraw from Aadhar should be available to all but not just for certain groups only. The decision may be exempted for PAN holders as Supreme Court upheld the linking of PAn and Aadhaar.