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In line with Government’s commitment to make Aadhaar people-friendly and enable its voluntary use to perform Aadhaar authentication under any law or as prescribed, it is proposed to provide for preparation of the proposal for performance of such authentication by entities other than Government Ministries and Departments for prescribed purposes.
Through an amendment enacted in 2019 to the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016, it was provided under section 4(4) of the Act that entities may be allowed to perform authentication if the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is satisfied that the requesting entity is compliant with standards of privacy and security specified by regulations and is permitted by law to offer authentication services or seeks authentication for a prescribed purpose. Pursuant to this amendment, the said purposes were prescribed by the Aadhaar Authentication for Good Governance (Social Welfare, Innovation, Knowledge) Rules, 2020. These rules provided that Aadhaar authentication by requesting entities may be allowed in the interest of good governance, preventing leakage of public funds, promoting ease of living of residents and enabling better access to services for them, for the purposes of usage of digital platforms to ensure good governance, prevention of dissipation of social welfare benefits and enablement of innovation and the spread of knowledge.
The amendments now proposed to the rules will provide for preparation of the proposal for performance of Aadhaar authentication by entities other than Ministries and Departments of the Central Government and State Governments for prescribed purposes. Further, it is proposed to include the promoting of ease of living of residents and enabling of better access to services for them as one of the prescribed purposes.
The draft amendments are placed on the Ministry’s website at https://www.meity.gov.in/content/draft-amendments-aadhaar-authentication-good-governance-rules-2020-enable-performance. The text of the rules as they would stand after effecting the amendments (with the amended portions of the text shown in colour) is also placed at https://www.meity.gov.in/content/draft-amendments-aadhaar-authentication-good-governance-rules-2020-enable-performance.
Feedback is invited from the public on these draft amendments. Submissions will not be attributed to individuals publicly and will be held in fiduciary capacity to enable persons submitting the feedback to provide the same freely.
Timeline:
| Start Date: | 20th April 2023 |
| End Date: | 20th May 2023 |