Amending instrument · act

The Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Act, 2019

2019-07-25 · Source PDF

The Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Act, 2019 (Act 14 of 2019) was the principal post-Puttaswamy legislative response to the Supreme Court’s judgment in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India (2018), which read down or struck down several provisions of the original Aadhaar Act, 2016 — including section 57 (use of Aadhaar by private entities) and parts of section 33.

The Amendment Act:

Voluntary use, virtual identity, offline verification. Inserted sub-section (4) to section 3 and inserted section 8A to formalise offline verification of Aadhaar numbers; introduced the concept of an alternative virtual identity (VID).
Children. Inserted section 3A requiring parental consent for enrolment of children and a right to cancel the Aadhaar number within six months of attaining majority.
Civil penalties. Inserted Chapter VIA (sections 33A–33F) with adjudication officers, an appellate tribunal (the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal), and appeals to the Supreme Court.
Section 57 omitted. Removed the basis for any private entity to require Aadhaar authentication; replaced with a more constrained framework in section 4(7), 8A, and the corresponding regulations.
Section 21 substituted. Reframed the Authority’s hiring power.
Section 25 substituted. Created the “Unique Identification Authority of India Fund” with statutory grants and earnings.
Other amendments. Definitions (section 2), authentication (section 8), restriction on sharing (sections 29, 30), disclosure under court order (section 33), penalties for impersonation and tampering (sections 38, 39, 40), regulation-making power (section 54).

Per-section verbatim before/after text appears in the History block of each affected section.

Sections affected

This is auto-generated from each section’s history frontmatter — see “Sections affected” below.

Sections affected

Section 2 — Definitions — inserted
Section 3 — Aadhaar number — inserted
Section 3A — Aadhaar number of children — inserted
Section 4 — Properties of Aadhaar number — substituted (sub-section (3))
Section 7 — Proof of Aadhaar number necessary for receipt of certain subsidies, benefits and services, etc — inserted
Section 8 — Authentication of Aadhaar number — inserted
Section 8A — Offline verification of Aadhaar number — inserted
Section 21 — Officers and other employees of Authority — substituted (section 21)
Section 23A — Power of Authority to issue directions — inserted
Section 25 — Fund — substituted (section 25)
Section 29 — Restriction on sharing information — substituted (sub-section (3))
Section 33 — Disclosure of information in certain cases — substituted (“District Judge“)
Section 38 — Penalty for unauthorised access to the Central Identities Data Repository — substituted (“three years“)
Section 39 — Penalty for tampering with data in Central Identities Data Repository — substituted (“three years“)
Section 40 — Penalty for unauthorised use by requesting entity or offline verification seeking entity — substituted (section 40)
Section 42 — General penalty — substituted (“one year“)
Section 47 — Cognizance of offences — inserted
Section 50A — Exemption from tax on income — inserted
Section 51 — Delegation — substituted (“Member, officer“)
Section 53 — Power of Central Government to make rules — inserted
Section 54 — Power of Authority to make regulations — substituted (clause (a))
Section 57 — Act not to prevent use of Aadhaar number for other purposes under law — omitted (section 57)