Supreme Court Rejects Aadhaar Card for Age Verification, Landmark Verdict Read full news

In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court refused to accept Aadhaar card as proof of age.

In a landmark decision, Supreme Court refused to consider Aadhaar card as proof of age. In this judgement, the court also rejected the order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court which considered Aadhaar card as proof of age for payment of compensation to road accident victims.

A school leaving certificate is required under Juvenile Justice Act

A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and Ujjal Bhuyan said that under Section 94 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, the age of a person can be determined on the basis of his date of birth as recorded in his school. Leaving Certificate The law clarifies that it is not appropriate to treat the Aadhaar card as proof of age.

UIDAI also refused to accept Aadhaar as proof of date of birth

Referring to an office memorandum issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on December 20, 2018, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in its circular number 8/2023 clarified that Aadhaar card can be made, the court said. Used as proof of identity, but not considered as proof of date of birth.

The judgment of the High Court was set aside

Rohtak’s Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) awarded a compensation of Rs 19.35 lakh, which was reduced to Rs 9.22 lakh by the Haryana High Court. The High Court had reduced the compensation amount considering the age of the deceased as 47 years based on Aadhaar card. The Supreme Court overturned this decision and accepted the MACT’s decision as correct.

The Supreme Court upheld the MACT decision

In this case the contention of the appellant was accepted by the Supreme Court and the age of the deceased was determined on the basis of the school leaving certificate, which was upheld by the Supreme Court. The court is once again hearing an appeal filed by the family of a person who died in a road accident in 2015.

After the decision it became clear – Aadhaar card is the only proof of identity.

The decision clarified that Aadhaar card is proof of identity and not age. School leaving certificate is now highly preferred while determining age for any government scheme or benefit.

Preference of documents relating to determination of age

The decision of the Supreme Court clarifies the limitations of the Aadhaar card in the judiciary, which may become important in other cases in the future.