UIDAI asks telcos to submit plan to discontinue Aadhaar-based eKYC

The UIDAI Monday asked telecom companies to submit within next 15 days a plan to stop using Aadhaar for customer authentication, days after the Supreme Court imposed curbs on the use of the 12-digit unique ID number.

A circular to this effect has been issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to telecom service providers (TSPs), including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea and others.

The UIDAI circular, seen by PTI, says: "...all TSPs are called upon to immediately take actions in order to comply with the judgement dated 26.09.2018. In this regard, TSPs are hereby directed to submit by 15th October, 2018, an action plan/exit plan to the authority for closure of use of Aadhaar based authentication systems..."
When contacted, UIDAI CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey said: "In order to ensure smooth discontinuation...there are certain requirements which are there under the Aadhaar regulations...so the companies are in the best position to know what exactly is needed and they can submit their plan by October 15. If any additional requirements are to be done from the UIDAI side, we will tell them after receipt of their plan."