The centre and state governments must not insist on Aadhaar from citizens before providing essential services, the apex court ruled

In a significant development, the Supreme Court on Monday has ruled that Aadhaar or the unique identification (UID) number scheme, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s ambitious project, is not mandatory to avail essential services from the government.

Various state governments have been insisting on making Aadhaar compulsory for a range of formalities, including marriage registration, disbursal of salaries and provident fund among other public services.

While hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by retired Karnataka High Court judge Justice KS Puttaswamy and advocate Parvesh Khanna questioning the legal sanctity of Aadhaar, the apex court said, “The centre and state governments must not insist on Aadhaar from citizens before providing them essential services.”

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What is Aadhaar?

Aadhaar is a 12 digit individual identification number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India on behalf of the Government of India.

This number will serve as a proof of identity and address, anywhere in India.

Any individual, irrespective of age and gender, who is a resident in India and satisfies the verification process laid down by the UIDAI can enrol for Aadhaar.

Each individual needs to enroll only once which is free of cost.

Each Aadhaar number will be unique to an individual and will remain valid for life. Aadhaar number will help you provide access to services like banking, mobile phone connections and other Govt and Non-Govt services in due course.
Some other information about Aadhaar:
Aadhaar will be:

Easily verifiable in an online, cost-effective way

Unique and robust enough to eliminate the large number of duplicate and fake identities in government and private databases

A random number generated, devoid of any classification based on caste, creed, religion and geography

Click Here for the official website

Click Here for How to Enrol

Click Here for Where to Enrol

Click Here for the Enrolment Form