Aadhaar card not an authoritative proof of date of birth: Supreme Court

Aadhaar Card Update: Today, every Aadhaar card is connected to our every small and big need. From buying a SIM card to opening a bank account, Aadhaar card is considered an important document. But the Supreme Court made it clear in one of its orders that Aadhaar can only be used as an identity proof and it is not a document to prove your age.

Aadhaar will not work here

The Supreme Court has cancelled the order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court which accepted Aadhaar card to determine the age of a road accident victim for granting compensation.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and Ujjal Bhuiyan said that the age of the deceased should be calculated from the date of birth mentioned in the School Leaving Certificate under Section 94 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.

UIDAI also did not accept the age certificate

The bench noted, “We find that the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), through its Circular No. 8/2023, in reference to an Office Memorandum dated December 20, 2018 issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, has stated that an Aadhaar card may be used to establish identity but it is not a proof of date of birth.”

What is the whole matter?

The Supreme Court accepted the argument of the claimant-appellants and upheld the decision of the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT), which had calculated the age of the deceased on the basis of his school leaving certificate. The apex court was hearing an appeal filed by the family of a person who died in a road accident in 2015. The MACT, Rohtak, had awarded a compensation of Rs 19.35 lakh which was reduced to Rs 9.22 lakh by the High Court after observing that the MACT had wrongly applied the age multiplier while determining the compensation.

The High Court had relied on the deceased’s Aadhaar card and estimated his age to be 47 years. The family argued that the High Court had made a mistake in determining the age of the deceased on the basis of Aadhaar Card because if his age is calculated according to his school leaving certificate, then his age at the time of death was 45 years.

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