Ministry of Communication, Department of Telecommunications has issued the complete instructions regarding the Discontinuation of Use of Aadhaar eKYC service of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for issuing new mobile connections and Reverification of existing mobile subscribers.
In compliance to Hon’ble Supreme Court observations in its judgment regarding the usage of Aadhaar/authentication performed using EKYC service of UIDAI and also set aside some of the clauses/struck down some of the portions of clauses of Aadhaar Act and Aadhaar Regulations, 2016.
So, the competent authority has approved the instructions about discontinuing the use of Aadhaar eKYC service of UIDAI for Reverification of existing subscribers with immediate effect (26.10.2018) by all telecom operators (Licensees) in India.
Department of Telecom has also instructed all the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) of India to ensure its implementation across the country in a time-bound manner and compliance in this regard be submitted by 5th November 2018
What is the new process for issuing mobile connections instead of Aadhaar eKYC?
As per the joint representation of Telecom Industry, an alternate digital process for KYC of mobile subscribers which envisages CAF to be embedded with a live photograph of a subscriber and scanned images of PoI / PoA thereby digitizing the end to end process for onboarding of new mobile subscribers by making it completely paperless.
Accordingly to this representation, Department of Telecom Government of India has directed all telecom service providers to ensure the readiness of their systems and offer the Proof of Concept of the proposed digital process by 05.11.2018 for approval.
How to issue mobile connections before new eKYC process?
- All Licensees may use the old Proof of identity / Proof of Address (PoI/PoA) based process as per DOT to issue new mobile connections to subscribers.
- Accepting the copy of physical Aadhaar or e-Aadhaar letter having masked or unmasked Aadhaar number (as downloaded from UIDAI website) as PoI/PoA document, if offered voluntarily by the subscriber.
Read Also: What is the Customer care number of BSNL in each state ?
As per DOT order on Aadhar eKYC, All Telecom service providers (BSNL, Reliance Jio, Airtel, Vodafone Idea etc…) shall also delete the column of writing Aadhaar number (which was an optional entry) on Customer Acquisition Forms (CAFs) for issuing the new mobile connections. So, as per the new instructions of Government of India, it is not mandatory to submit Aadhaar eKYC to avail BSNL mobile connection for prepaid or postpaid services.