Supreme Court to Hear PIL on Tougher Aadhaar Verification Rules for Teens and Adults on May 4

NEW DELHI, May 3: The Supreme Court is slated to hear a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on May 4 seeking stricter norms for the issuance of Aadhaar cards to adolescents and adults, amid concerns over alleged misuse of the identification system by infiltrators posing as Indian citizens.

According to the apex court’s cause list, the matter will be heard by a bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi.

The petition, filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay through counsel Ashwani Dubey, has urged the court to direct the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to issue new Aadhaar cards only to children up to the age of six years under the existing framework. For adolescents and adults, the plea has demanded the formulation of more stringent verification guidelines to prevent illegal immigrants from securing Aadhaar credentials fraudulently.

The PIL has also requested directions for the installation of display boards at Common Service Centres across the country, clearly stating that Aadhaar serves only as proof of identity and should not be treated as proof of citizenship, address, or date of birth.

Apart from UIDAI, the petition has named the Union Ministries of Home Affairs, Law and Justice, and Electronics and Information Technology as respondents. All states and Union Territories have also been made parties to the case.

In the petition, the petitioner argued that Aadhaar, which was initially conceived as a basic identity document, has gradually evolved into a “foundational document” used for obtaining several other official records such as ration cards, domicile certificates, voter ID cards, and driving licences.

The plea highlighted that UIDAI has already issued nearly 144 crore Aadhaar numbers and claimed that around 99 percent of India’s population has been enrolled under the programme. It alleged that the existing verification mechanism is vulnerable to manipulation, enabling infiltrators to obtain Aadhaar cards under the “Indian citizen” category instead of applying as foreigners.

The petitioner further claimed that once Aadhaar is secured, individuals can subsequently acquire multiple government-issued documents, making it difficult to distinguish illegal infiltrators from legitimate Indian citizens.

The PIL has questioned whether certain provisions of the Aadhaar Act, 2016, have become “temporally unreasonable” due to their inability to adequately address present-day challenges related to identity verification and citizenship differentiation.

The petition also contended that misuse of Aadhaar affects the integrity of welfare schemes by diverting public resources meant for genuine beneficiaries.

The Supreme Court is expected to examine the constitutional and administrative aspects raised in the plea during Monday’s hearing.