Legal portal offers e-Sign service on Aadhaar platform

New online legal documentation portal LegalDesk.com on Wednesday announced electronic signing (eSign) service on the state-run Aadhaar platform to all citizens with the unique identification number.

"All citizens with a mobile number and a Aadhaar number can avail our facility to e-Sign any legal document created or uploaded on our portal for a transaction fee of Rs 25," LegalDesk.com co-founder Ashok Kadsur told IANS on the occasion.

As the service is in compliance with the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, eSign documents will be considered legally valid across the country.

Incubated in 2014 by founder Krupesh Bhat and Kadsur with own funds, the city-based technology start-up caters to legal needs of Indians the world over, with a range of documents signed digitally, transmitted electronically and paid through gateways that are linked to the Aadhar platform and banks.

"We see many opportunities in the legal-tech space for Aadhaar-based services on our portal with eSign, as it makes documentation process easier and click away for citizens, institutions and government organisations," Kadsur asserted.

To use the service, a document has to be uploaded to www.eSignDesk.com portal or website, which facilitates the eSign process using Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) eSign and eKYC (know your customer) services.

"The next step involves entering the Aadhaar number of the parties. A one-time password (OTP) will be sent to the customer's mobile number registered with the Aadhaar card. On keying the password, UIDAI will generate a digital signature and placed on the document, which can be downloaded after others concerned e-sign it for safe-keeping," noted Bhat.

As a promotional offer, the portal is giving first 1,000 customers an opportunity to digitally sign one document free of cost.

With a billion Aadhaar card holders across the country and 25 million transactions per quarter, digital signatures are here to stay as they save time, money and trees.

Launching the service, Infosys co-founder and UIDAI's first chairman Nandan Nilekani said digital signature is an excellent initiative, as it makes the entire documentation process paperless.

"It is great to see start-ups like LegalDesk.com adopting Aadhaar innovatively using eSign and the India Stack," Nilekani said at the event.

The eSign on the paperless document in the PDF formant cannot be replicated or forged. Similarly, as its content cannot be tampered with, it deters fraud to a large extent. It can also be used for self-attestation.

Citizens creating a legal document using the portal's platform can also opt to it printed on a stamp paper and delivered to their doorstep, saving time and money words.

--IANS

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