The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has maintained that verification of Aadhaar number following the consent of the Aadhaar holder is the right step to establish genuineness of any form of Aadhaar (Aadhaar letter, e-Aadhaar, Aadhaar PVC card, and m-Aadhaar) presented by an individual.
It said that entities should verify the Aadhaar before accepting an Aadhaar either in physical or electronic form for establishing identity of an individual.
It said that verification prohibits unscrupulous elements and anti-social elements from indulging in any possible misuse of Aadhaar. “It also promotes usage hygiene, and reasserts UIDAI’s stand that any 12-digit number is not an Aadhaar,” UIDAI stated through PIB.
It added that tampering of Aadhaar documents can be detected by offline verification, and that tampering is a punishable offence and liable for penalties under Section 35 of the Aadhaar Act.
Meanwhile, UIDAI has requested the state governments by emphasizing the need for verification before usage, and has urged the states to give necessary direction so that whenever Aadhaar is submitted as a proof of identity – authentication/verification of the resident is performed by the concerned entity using Aadhaar as an identity document.
Any Aadhaar can be verified using the QR code available on all forms of Aadhaar using mAadhaar App or Aadhaar QR code Scanner. The QR code scanner is freely available for both Android and iOS based mobile phones, as well as windows-based applications.
