According to a statement released on Thursday, the Unique Identification Authority of India has requested state governments and other organizations to validate Aadhaar before accepting it in the physical or electronic form to prevent misuse.
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) further stated that verifying the Aadhaar number with the Aadhaar holder's permission is the correct approach to determine the validity of any form of Aadhaar — Aadhaar letter, e-Aadhaar, Aadhaar PVC card, and m-Aadhaar — presented by a person.
UIDAI encouraged the state governments to issue the necessary instructions so that whenever Aadhaar is submitted as proof of identification, authentication/verification of the residents is performed by the concerned entity utilizing Aadhaar as an identity document.
Additionally, UIDAI has published circulars explaining the importance of verification as well as the process to be followed.
"It prohibits fraudulent individuals and antisocial individuals from engaging in any potential misuse. Additionally, it highlights UIDAI's view that any 12-digit number is not an Aadhaar and encourages proper usage hygiene. Offline verification can be used to detect tampering with Aadhaar documents, which is illegal and subject to penalties under Section 35 of the Aadhaar Act "according to the statement.
Any Aadhaar can be verified using the QR code available on all forms of Aadhaar using mAadhaarApp or Aadhaar QR code scanner.
The statement said that the QR code scanner was freely accessible for window-based apps and mobile devices operating Android and iOS.
Around 1,000 government schemes use Aadhaar, and UIDAI is actively negotiating with states to use the Aadhaar platform for more schemes.
Residents can voluntarily use their Aadhaar number to prove their identification by displaying it in paper or electronic form. So far, UIDAI has issued over 135 crore Aadhaar cards.
