1. INTRODUCTION
At the end of September, the Supreme Court of India, in
Justice Puttaswamy (Retd.) and Anr. v Union of India and
Ors. (the "Aadhaar
Case"),1 upheld the validity of the
Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies,
Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 (the "Aadhaar
Act") while striking out parts of the Aadhaar Act
which permitted private companies and other body corporates to use
the Aadhaar number of an individual for establishing the identity
of an individual for any purpose.
The effect of this judgement is that companies are no longer
permitted to use the authentication and e-KYC facilities authorized
under the Aadhaar (Authentication) Regulations, 2016, (the
"Authentication Regulations") which had
become a preferred method for authenticating and establishing
identity details of individuals, when transacting in a paperless
format.