Following Aadhaar being made compulsory for Income Tax returns, it will now be mandatory to link mobile numbers to Aadhaar. The Department of Telecom has issued a note saying that all telecom operators will have ensure that their subscribers link mobile numbers to Aadhaar number within a year. A copy of the DoT notification is available here. This follows orders from the Supreme Court dated 6th February 2017, passed in a Write Petition (C) No 607/2016 filed by Lokiti Foundation vs Union of India, where the court had said that "an effective process has been evolved to ensure identity verification, as well as, the addresses of all mobile phone subscribers for new subscribers. In the near future, and more particularly within one year from today, a similar verification will be completed, in case of existing subscribers." The DoT believes that this statement "amounts to direction which is to be completed within a time frame of one year." Shortly after the observation from the Supreme Court, "A meeting was held on 13.02.2017 in the Department with the telecom industry wherein UIDAI, TRAI and PMO representatives also participated to discuss the way forward to implement the directions of the Supreme court." The verification process 1. Reverification of all subscribers using E-KYC process: "All mobile operators shall re-verify all existing mobile subscribers (prepaid and postpaid) through Aadhaar based E-KYC process. All mobile operators are expected to inform existing subscribers through an advertisement in the print/electronic media, as well as SMS about the orders…
