Linking driving licences to one’s Aadhaar card will soon be made mandatory. The government is all set to do so after clarity emerges from the Supreme Court which is slated to give its verdict in the Aadhaar case in March.
The 12-digit biometric Aadhaar number will be made mandatory for existing, obtaining and renewing driving licences. Even as the apex court is hearing appeals against Aadhaar linkage, the government has completed its road map for implementation.
A senior official in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said the government is very keen to link Aadhaar with driving licences all over India. “The backend process has already been initiated under the Sarthi-4 programme.
IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad is very keen on the linkage. However, since the Aadhaar hearing is underway in the Supreme Court, we have not yet gone ahead with the formal announcement,” said the official, who did not wish to be named.
The official said, “Once clarity emerges from the Supreme Court on how the scope of Aadhaar can be expanded beyond entitlements, we shall go ahead with the process.
Aadhaar and licences linkage will be a tool for better governance. It will weed out fake and duplicate licences. In case of accidents, fake and duplicate licences are a major grey area.”
The Supreme Court was also recently informed by a court-appointed committee on road safety headed by former apex court judge Justice K S Radhakrishnan that the National Informatics Centre is preparing ‘Sarthi-4’ under which all the licences would be linked to Aadhaar.