Alert! Aadhaar Returns: Govt amends law as now Aadhaar will be mandatory for new SIM, bank accounts

After the Supreme Court’s decision to restrict the private companies to use Aadhaar card, the government will now amend the law which is tabled in the parliament.

The BJP government has planned to amened the law wherein the private players will be allowed to demand the Aadhaar card to issue new SIM cards and to open bank accounts.

The cabinet, which is being headed by the PM Narendra Modi, has approved the recommendations to amened the Telegraph Act and the Prevntion of Money Laundering Act after the Supreme Court had imposed a ban on the private companies mandatory demanding the Aadhaar card for ID and authentication.

A person who was aware of the developments told the Economic Times that “The Supreme Court had given two rulings — one on privacy (in August) and another on Aadhaar (in September). The amendment is in compliance with those judgements.”

The Telecom companies had made it mandatory for the users to register their Aadhaar number before getting a SIM and even asked the new users that the Aadhaar will be a mandatory requirement to procure a SIM crd.

Same story was followed in the bank accounts where Aadhaar was required to open the account but after the Supreme Courts verdict, the banks had retracted to PAN cards, Driving License but as of now, the earlier requirements will make a comeback as Aadhaar is making a return.

“Aadhaar was never mandatory for us, after the Supreme Court verdict we started with the earlier method of registering customers using the forms and now use the QR code generated on authenticated applications (APPs) hosted on our sites,” a senior executive said.

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