On Wednesday, the Supreme Court passed a judgment regarding the Delink Aadhaar, that linking Aadhaar number with your bank account or SIM card is no longer mandatory and forcing anyone to do so shall be treated as unconstitutional. For those who have already linked their 12-digit identity number issued by UIDAI, could expect the bankers and telecom service providers to issue a streamlined process to unlink Aadhaar.

Unless you are receiving any direct benefit transfers (DBT) or subsidies in your bank account, you have every right to not share your Aadhaar details with the bank or your mobile service provider. In the case of DBT, the Aadhaar needs to remain linked. Also, note that PAN has to be linked to Aadhaar for income tax purposes.

How to Delink Aadhaar number?

  • You need to go to the branch of the bank where you have the account and contact the customer care representative.
  • You’ll then be required to submit a formal request in an application to the bank.
  • Carry other KYC documents like PAN card and passbook along with to facilitate delinking.
  • Within 48 hours, the bank will delink your Aadhaar from your bank account and send you the confirmation.
  • You can also delink your bank account and Aadhaar number by using net banking facility or your bank’s mobile application.

Usually, for KYC (know your customer) purposes, the organisation will ask for Aadhaar details for ‘Aadhaar authentication’. In the process, you will either share your biometric information (like the fingerprint) or OTP (when done online), which means that you are providing your consent to provide Aadhaar details like photograph and address to the organisation.

You can track your Aadhaar history at any point to see who has used your details.

The ‘Compendium of Regulations, Circulars and Guidelines’ on UIDAI’s official website states that, “The Aadhaar number holder may, at any time, revoke consent given to a KUA for storing his e-KYC data or for sharing it with third parties, and upon such revocation, the KUA shall delete the e-KYC data and cease any further sharing.”

This means it is completely legal to ask for a delink and you cannot be denied services for lack of Aadhaar or its details and the organisation is liable to delete any data collected before.

The service providers have not come up with a simple process to unlink the Aadhaar yet.

Some service providers like PayTM allow you to do so after you make a call to their customer care (01204456456) requesting the same. An official email will be sent to you to start the process and they will remove your Aadhaar details from their database in 72 hours.

You can try the same for your telecom service providers. In the case of bank accounts, no online method is available yet. You may visit your nearest branch and as them to unlink your Aadhaar from your bank account

Here’s why the Supreme Court said Aadhaar-bank account linking isn’t mandatory

  • The Supreme Court said no explanations have been given as to how the mandatory linking of every bank account will eradicate/reduce the problems of money laundering and black money.
  • Secondly, banks are already using alternatives to Aadhaar. There are alternative methods of KYC which the banks are already undertaking; the state has not discharged its burden as to why linking of Aadhaar is imperative. We may point out that RBI’s own Master Direction allows using alternatives to Aadhaar to open bank accounts, the Supreme Court said.
  • The apex court laid emphasis on how bank accounts have become a necessity these days and people are opening bank accounts under various government schemes even with zero balance. It said they (people) are also becoming habitual to the good practice of entering into transactions through their banks and even by using digital modes for operation of the bank accounts. Making the requirement of Aadhaar compulsory for all such and other persons in the name of checking money laundering or black money is grossly disproportionate.”

Source: Indiatoday


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