The Registrar General of India (RGI) on Tuesday clarified in a recent reply to an RTI request that the provisions of Aadhaar is not mandatory for the registration of births and deaths. This information was provided by the RGI in response to an RTI.

 If a person gives an Aadhaar number of his choice, it should compulsorily ensure that the Aadhaar is not printed out under any circumstances and also that the entire Aadhaar number is not stored in the death and birth database according to the notification by the RGI. The notification also stated that the first four digits of the Aadhaar number can be printed if necessary.  

The RTI application was made by Visakhapatnam-based advocate Mr. MVS Anil Kumar Rajagiri, a resident of Andhra Pradesh to which this clarification was made. The question put forth by him in the application was whether Aadhaar is mandatory for registration of death or not.

The RGI referred to an April 2019 circular in reference to this to clarify that "Registration of births and deaths in the country are being done under the provisions of Registration of Births and Deaths (RBD) Act, 1969 and there is not a provision in the RBD Act which permits the use of Aadhaar for establishing the identity of an individual for the purpose of registration of birth and death. There is no law framed for such use of Aadhaar, section 57 (Aadhaar authentication) is not attracted, therefore, the requirement of Aadhaar for registration of births and deaths is not mandatory".

The RGI also noted that the registration of births and deaths was done under the Registration of Births and Deaths (RBD) Act, 1969, which was a Central law. But it also added that the implementation of the provisions of the said Act lies with the State/UT governments.

For establishing the identity of an individual for the purpose of registration of birth and death on voluntary basis, an applicant may provide the physical copy of Aadhaar number or Enrolment ID number as one of the acceptable documents, the Ministry further provided. The registering authority must ensure that the first eight digits of the Aadhaar number are masked with black ink.

In the famous case of Justice KS Puttaswamy (Retd.) & Anr v. Union of India & Ors, the Supreme Court had read down the provision for Aadhaar authentication and it held that the portion of Section 57 of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies Benefits and Services) Act 2016, which enables body corporate and individual to seek authentication, is "unconstitutional".

The RGI had decreed that Aadhaar number would be required for the purpose of establishing the identity of the deceased for the purpose of death registration in 2017. The RGI noted that “the portion of Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act in 2019. The circular made by the Ministry was sent to the Chief Registrars of births and deaths of all States directing them to ensure that local registering authorities did not demand Aadhaar as a mandatory requirement. The circular also added that Aadhaar could be accepted as one of the acceptable documents if produced on a voluntary basis.


This news has been reported by By Yashasvi Kanodia