Use Of Aadhaar Number Not Mandatory For Registration Of Births & Deaths, Clarifies Registrar General Of UoI In RTI Reply

The clarification has come in response to a RTI application made by a resident of Andhra Pradesh, Mr. MVS Anil Kumar Rajagiri. He had asked the Government whether Aadhaar is mandatory for registration of death or not.

In this regard, the RTI reply refers to a Circular dated April 3, 2019, whereby Ministry of Home Affairs clarified,

"Registration of births and deaths in the country are being done under the provisions of Registration of Births and Deaths (RBD) Act, 1969 and there is no provision in the RBD Act which permits the use of Aadhaar for establishing the identity of an individual for the purpose of registration of birth and death. There being no law framed for such use of Aadhaar, section 57 (Aadhaar authentication) is not attracted, therefore, the requirement of Aadhaar for registration of births and deaths is not mandatory."

The Ministry further provided that an applicant may provide the physical copy of Aadhaar number or Enrolment ID number for establishing the identity of an individual for the purpose of registration of birth and death on voluntary basis, as one of the acceptable documents.

However, the registering authority shall have to ensure that the first eight digits of the Aadhaar number are masked with black ink.

"In no case Aadhaar number be stored in the database or printed on any document. Only the last four digits of the Aadhaar Number may be printed or stored, if needed," the Circular stated.

In Justice KS Puttaswamy (Retd.) & Anr v. Union of India & Ors., the Supreme Court had read down the provision for Aadhaar authentication, and it held that the portion of Section 57 of the Aadhaar(Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act 2016, which enables body corporate and individual to seek authentication, is "unconstitutional".

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