Deadline for Aadhar linking with Mobile sim cards

New Delhi, Sept 10: The Central government has released on Saturday the deadline for linking Aadhaar with mobile SIM cards and all unlinked phones will be deactivated after February 2018.

The Sources said that linking of Aadhaar and mobile is being done as per the orders of the Supreme Court passed in February this year in the Lokniti foundation case and all SIM cards have to be verified with Aadhaar within a year from the date of judgement, with all unlinked phones to be deactivated thereafter (after February 2018), so criminals, fraudsters and terrorists cannot use the issued SIM cards.

The sources also said that biometrics cannot be stored by the mobile operators nor do they have access to any of the other personal data.

They said that the biometrics collected should be encrypted by the telecom company and sent to UIDAI as it is being done and any storage of biometric by a service provider is a criminal offense punishable with up to three years of imprisonment under the Aadhaar Act 2016.