Subscribers must link Aadhaar with SIM by Feb 6: Centre

Mumbai: The Centre on Thursday told the Supreme Court that all customers should finish linking their mobile phone numbers with Aadhaar by February 6 under E-KYC verification.

Citing an order passed by the Supreme Court, the government said that apex court had in February, 2017, approved that all SIM cards have to be linked with Aadhaar within a year from the date of judgement. The Centre also said that the production of the 12-digit biometric number was mandatory for opening new bank accounts.

The government said that deadline for linkage of Aadhaar with SIM “cannot be modified by the government unilaterally (as it is fixed by the SC)." The government also said that it has decided to extend the deadline for linking Aadhaar with existing bank accounts from December 31, 2017 to March 31, according to a report by Economic Times. 

The government also asserted that no starvation death had taken place anywhere because of anyone not having Aadhaar. 

The move to link Aadhaar with SIM was seen as a step towards curbing terrorists, fraudsters, criminals who use multiple SIMs to get away with crime.

Amidst controversies surrounding the safety of data submission with telcos, the government has introduced a number of measures for secure linking of Aadhaar with SIM. The Department of Telecom and telecom operators are also working on a process of SMS/IVRS and app-based verification.