MediaNama.com: New Delhi:
Wednesday, April 09, 2014.
UIDAI does
not have any procedure to remove Aadhaar number from its database. A Central
Public Information Officer (CPIO) of UIDAI has informed(pdf), in response to an
RTI filed requesting procedure for removing the number.
The RTI
sought answers to the requests received for authentication, confirmation, or matching
of any of the RTI applicant’s data held by the UIDAI, the details of the
persons or entities asking for such authentication and certified copies of
requests and responses sent on the same. UIDAI CPIO initially said that his
data was not shared with anyone, but the appellant questioned this response as
a gas agency and a bank had used his Aadhaar information for authentication.
The RTI
applicant was of the opinion that once the Aadhaar data had been used by a
third-party to authenticate his information, UIDAI should provide an option to
delete his details from its database as it no longer served any purpose.
The RTI
information was revealed as part of an investigation (pdf) by the Central
Information Commissoin (CIC) based on a complaint filed by the RTI applicant on
UIDAI’s response.
The
commission stated that it will not go into this issue by itself, but will raise
this matter in appropriate fora if the appellant wishes to. The RTI seeking
information regarding sharing of UID
data was filed in September. The RTI was received by the CPIO next month, but
when he did not receive a response even after a month, he filed an appeal to
the First Appellate in November. The appellate court did not conduct any
investigation and it was at this point that the RTI applicant approached CIC.
Why is
this important?
UIDAI has
till now issued 60 crore Aadhaar number, which includes several people who
created the id just to avail cooking gas subsidies, for which the Aadhaar card
was previously mandatory. However, with the Supreme Court recently ruling that
Aadhaar card is not mandatory for social services, there might be several
people who would want to cancel it to prevent abuse. This despite a recent
court order that the government cannot share data from Aadhaar with external
agencies without user consent.
It is also
worth noting that Aadhaar number on its own does not serve any purpose other
than act as an id proof, which makes it very different from a PAN card,
driver’s license or passport which have primary uses other than being an id
card. That being the case, it is important for UIDAI to make it possible for
individuals to remove their details from its database.
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