Govt may amend acts to make Aadhaar linkage for mobile phone, bank accounts voluntary

It may be noted that the Supreme Court in September struck down Section 57 of the Aadhaar act which allowed private parties to access Aadhaar data. 

The government is actively planning to modify the Telegraph Act and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to give voluntarily linking mobile numbers and bank accounts to Aadhaar a legal backing, says an Economic Times report. As per the report, the ministry of electronics & information technology has moved a proposal which is currently being reviewed by other stakeholder ministries, including finance and telecom. The report further mentioned that the proposal includes an amendment to the Aadhaar Act to give legal validity to the virtual token introduced by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to avoid sharing of the Aadhaar number. It may be noted that the Supreme Court in September struck down Section 57 of the Aadhaar act which allowed private parties to access Aadhaar data. The Centre is unlikely to bring back Section 57 and instead implement the order by introducing these amendments, the report mentioned. The apex court ruling left space for the government to legislate if it wanted any specific services linked to the Aadhaar. The financial daily mentioned that the Telegraph Act provides a window of options to introduce changes in order to include Aadhaar in the e-KYC (know your customer) procedures. At present, the Act already allows the government to access or take over these services during a public emergency. Besides, the PMLA amendment will include the option for individuals to link their bank accounts to Aadhaar in the KYC. This would be entirely voluntary and the customer will have the option to use other documents. The government is believed to be considering amendments in rules to regulate access to Aadhaar and increase civil liabilities for misuse. It is also working on the Data Protection Bill submitted by the Justice Srikrishna Commission, to address data privacy concerns.