Centre Proposes Allowing Private Entities & State Governments to Conduct Aadhaar Authentication

The Central government has proposed to allow private entities and state governments to carry out Aadhaar authentication for a number of services, which will expand the ambit of the use of digital identity beyond its ministries and departments. Know more about this development in this article. This news item is relevant for the GS paper II governance segment of the UPSC Syllabus.

Amendments Proposed for Aadhaar Authentication

• The Amendments are proposed under the Aadhaar Authentication for Good Governance (Social Welfare, Innovation, Knowledge) Rules, 2020 by the IT Ministry.
• The amendment aims to allow private entities and state governments to utilize Aadhaar-based authentication to promote ease of living and to enable better access to services for them.
• According to a government official, the amendment is to make Aadhaar one of the world’s biggest online identity authentication platforms.
• Expansion of the ambit of Aadhaar authentication for the usage of digital platforms will also ensure good governance, prevent the dissipation of social welfare benefits, enable innovation and contribute to the spread of knowledge. 
• The draft amendment requires the private entities to submit a proposal to the central government with justification on the necessity to conduct aadhaar-based authentication and also ensure the protection of the interest of the state.

Also read: Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)

Constitutionality of the Move:

• In 2018 the Supreme Court struck down section 57 of the Aadhaar Act which allowed access to Aadhar data by private companies to establish the identity of individuals as unconstitutional.
• In 2019 the government amended the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 to allow only banking and telecom companies to carry out authentications to fulfil know-your-customer (KYC) requirements.
• This 2019 amendment was challenged in the Supreme Court and the judgement is pending.
• However, according to the government, the proposed amendments do not violate the 2018 judgement.
• According to an official the concern behind the 2018 judgement of the apex court was to protect the privacy of people and to stop the seeding of Aadhar data with privately held databases.
• Under the new proposal, the private entity will have no access to the Aadhaar details of a person and it will be only a simple yes or no authentication to establish the identity of a person.

Concerns Related to the Move:

• The proposed rules might open floodgates for social media platforms such as Facebook, and WhatsApp to enable aadhaar-based authentication.
• However, according to a government official, it is unlikely that social media platforms will enable aadhaar-based authentication since they are built around anonymous use. 

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