UIDAI asks telcos to submit plan to stop Aadhaar- eKYC

With the Supreme Court restricting mandatory using of Aadhaar for certain services including issuing mobile SIM cards, the UIDAI on Monday asked the telecom companies to submit their plan to stop using the 12-digit unique ID number for customer authentication.

The circular issued by the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) sent to all telecom service providers (TSPs) including Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and others. The companies have to send their replies within 15 days.

“All TSPs are called upon to immediately take actions in order to comply with the judgement dated 26.09.2018. In this regard, TSPs are hereby directed to submit by 15th October 2018 an action plan/exit plan to the authority for closure of use of Aadhaar based authentication systems,”, said the circular.

This means the telecom industry has to go back to the old system for KYC before issuing SIM cards like filling up papers, collecting photographs and verifying the customers through phone.

The Supreme Court, last week, struck down Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act, which allowed private companies to use the 12-digit biometric ID-based eKYC. Following this, private companies like telecom operators will not be able to use this instantaneous and inexpensive Aadhaar eKYC route.