Does the DoT circular directing mobile users to link Aadhaar number hold water?

Aadhaar Card

The Department of Telecommunications circular which has asked the service providers to once again authenticate their users' identity through their Aadhaar has no legal standing, reports the Indian Express in an opinion piece.

Recently, a few telecom operators flooded their subscribers with messages calling them to link their phone numbers with Aadhaar. The messages came right after the Supreme Court made 'Right to Privacy' a fundamental right. The IE report says that many subscribers have been told that their mobile connections will be cut off if the subscriber fails to link the two.

Many users are still in the process of enrolling for an Aadhaar and many are anxious to link the two due to privacy reasons.  The process of linking the two involves the user to visit their respective telecom operator service centre and authenticate their biometric data and reverify the biometric data fed in the Aadhaar database.

On the other hand, the deadline, February 28 2018, is also not mentioned in the circular, says IE. The circular does not mention any statutory or regulatory support.

The existing norms already ask users to furnish their government-authorised documents like voter's ID, licence, passport, etc. Telecom operators also verify users' ID by calling and rechecking whether the details provided are correct and if the information has not been tampered with.  The operators, if required, also verify the address by personally stopping by at the address mentioned in the forms and the documents.

The pending Aadhaar case will be heard by the Supreme Court in November.