Mobile Numbers Not Linked With Aadhaar Number Will be Deactivated After February 2018

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court passed an order and provided a deadline of exactly one year- February 6, 2018, for the existing mobile subscribers to link their SIM card with their Aadhaar number. And now, a report from PTI says that the “government is moving ahead with linking Aadhaar with mobile SIM cards and all unlinked phones will be deactivated after February 2018.”

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The report says that Aadhaar mobile linkage has made a mandatory one now as per the orders of Supreme Court passed in February this year in Lokniti foundation case and all SIM cards have to be verified with Aadhaar within a year from the date of judgement, with all unlinked phones to be deactivated after February next year, so criminals, fraudsters and terrorists cannot use the issued SIMs.

It is also revealed that telecom operators are not supposed to store the biometrics or any other personal data of the subscriber. “Biometrics collected should be encrypted by the telecom company and sent to UIDAI at that moment itself and any storage of biometric by a service provider is a criminal offence punishable with up to three years of imprisonment under the Aadhaar Act 2016,” adds the report.

The Supreme Court on February 6 passed an order and provided a deadline of exactly one year – February 6, 2018 – for compliance. The court had stated that “an effective process has been evolved to ensure identity verification, as well as, the addresses of all mobile phone subscribers for new subscribers. In the near future, and more particularly, within one year from today, a similar verification will be completed, in the case of existing customers.”