The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has removed Aadhaar from the list of acceptable documents as proof of date of birth (DoB).
This decision follows a directive from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) that use of Aadhaar as a proof of DoB needs to be deleted from the list of acceptable documents.
The removal decision has been made with the approval of the Central Provident Fund Commissioner (CPFC), a circular issued by EPFO on Tuesday said.
UIDAI had in December last year conveyed to EPFO that use of Aadhaar as a proof of DoB needs to be deleted from the list of acceptable documents.
UIDAI had observed that various entities, including EPFO, considered Aadhaar as proof of DoB. However, it emphasised that while Aadhaar serves as a unique identifier, it does not qualify as proof of date of birth under the Aadhaar Act, 2016
To buttress its point, UiDAI also cited the December 2018 office memorandum of MeitY which stated that “an Aadhaar number can be used for establishing identity of an individual subject to authentication and thereby, per se it’s not a proof of date of birth.”
This aspect of the Aadhaar Act 2016 has been reiterated/highlighted/stressed upon by different High Courts in recent judgements, said the UIDAI circular.
EPFO had in August last year issued a circular listing out the documents (besides Aadhaar) that are considered valid for date of birth purposes.
These are birth certificate issued by the Registrar of Births and Deaths; marksheet issued by any recognised government board or university; school leaving certificate (SLC)/ school transfer certificate (TC)/ SSC certificate containing name and date of birth; certificate based on the service records of Central/State government Organisations; PAN by IT Department; Central/ State Pension Payment Order; CGHS/ECHS/Medi-Claim Card; and Domicile Certificate issued by the Government.