Aadhaar Misuse: UIDAI Temporarily Bans eKYC License of Airtel and Airtel Payments Bank

Aadhaar body, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has taken a strong action on Bharti Airtel by suspending its e-KYC license and the license of Airtel Payments Bank. Although the license seise is a temporary one from UIDAI, it indeed has taken a high action on Airtel, at least when compared to the past.

  • Make Telecom Talk My Trusted Source
  • Source of Google
  • Source of Google

airtel-aadhaar-1

UIDAI also revealed the reason which forced it to take such an action. A report from PTI says that the telco is opening Airtel Payments Bank account using the eKYC SIM verification process without their notice or without their permission. “The action follows allegations of Bharti Airtel using the Aadhaar-eKYC based SIM verification process to open payments bank accounts of its subscribers without their ‘informed consent’,” says the report.

UIDAI also gave a strong answer to allegations which suggested that payments bank accounts are linked to receive LPG subsidy. UIDAI in an interim order “suspended e-KYC licence key of Bharti Airtel Ltd and Airtel Payment Bank Ltd with immediate effect.”

The suspension of eKYC license means Airtel cannot carry out electronic verification of SIM cards using the 12-digit Aadhaar identity till the temporary ban lift. Furthermore, the big blow is Airtel can’t even re-verify the customers using Aadhaar, which is a big blow for the telco as the deadline for re-verifying the mobile numbers using Aadhaar is set for March 31, 2018. This essentially means that customers have to get an Airtel SIM card using the standard paperwork, and waiting until 24 hours for the activation.