Chapter III AUTHENTICATION

The Central Government or, as the case may be, the State Government may, for the purpose of establishing identity of an individual as a condition for receipt of a subsidy, benefit or service for which the expenditure is incurred from, or the receipt therefrom forms part of, the Consolidated Fund of India, or the Consolidated Fund of State require that such individual undergo authentication, or furnish proof of possession of Aadhaar number or in the case of an individual to whom no Aadhaar number has been assigned, such individual makes an application for enrolment: Provided that if an Aadhaar number is not assigned to an individual, the individual shall be offered alternate and viable means of identification for delivery of the subsidy, benefit or service.

(1) The Authority shall perform authentication of the Aadhaar number of an Aadhaar number holder submitted by any requesting entity, in relation to his biometric information or demographic information, subject to such conditions and on payment of such fees and in such manner as may be specified by regulations. (2) A requesting entity shall— (a) unless otherwise provided in this Act, obtain the consent of an individual or in the case of a child obtain the consent of his parent or guardian before collecting his identity information for the purposes of authentication in such manner as may be specified by regulations; and (b) ensure that the identity information of an individual is only used for submission to the Central Identities Data Repository for authentication. Provided that the requesting entity shall, in case of failure to authenticate due to illness, injury or infirmity owing to old age or otherwise or any technical or other reasons, provide such alternate and viable means of identification of the individual, as may be specified by regulations. (3) A requesting entity shall inform, in such manner as may be specified by regulations, the individual submitting his identity information for authentication or in the case of a child, his parent or guardian, the following details with respect to authentication, namely:— (a) the nature of information that may be shared upon authentication; (b) the uses to which the information received during authentication may be put by the requesting entity; and (c) alternatives to submission of identity information to the requesting entity. (4) The Authority shall respond to an authentication query with a positive, negative or any other appropriate response sharing such identity information excluding any core biometric information.

(1) Every offline verification of an Aadhaar number holder shall be performed in accordance with the provisions of this section. (2) Every offline verification-seeking entity shall, — (a) before performing offline verification, obtain the consent of an individual, or in the case of a child, his parent or guardian, in such manner as may be specified by regulations; and

The Aadhaar number or the authentication thereof shall not, by itself, confer any right of, or be proof of, citizenship or domicile in respect of an Aadhaar number holder.

The Authority may engage one or more entities to establish and maintain the Central Identities Data Repository and to perform any other functions as may be specified by regulations.