Giving wrong information while making Aadhaar or committing fraud in the use of Aadhaar can be very costly. UIDAI has made provisions for both punishment and fine for Aadhaar related crimes.
Aadhaar is one of the most important documents today. As an identity card, you often use Aadhar card for many things. As you know, Aadhaar is a 12 digit personal identification number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India i.e. UIDAI on behalf of the Government of India. This number serves as proof of identity and address anywhere in India. Aadhaar card received through India Post and e-Aadhaar downloaded from UIDAI website are equally valid. But many times cases of fraud related to Aadhaar also come to light. There is also a provision for punishment or fine for crimes related to Aadhaar. Come, let us discuss these things here.
Aadhaar related crimes and penalties
- Giving false demographic or biometric information while making Aadhaar is a crime. If found guilty, he may face imprisonment up to 3 years or a fine up to Rs 10,000/- or both.
- It is an offense to falsify the identity of an Aadhaar number holder by altering or attempting to alter the demographic and biometric information of the Aadhaar number holder. For this, imprisonment up to 3 years and fine up to Rs 10,000/- may have to be paid.
- It is a crime to pretend to be an authorized agency to collect identifying information about a resident. If someone is found guilty of this offence, the punishment is imprisonment of up to 3 years or a fine of up to Rs 10,000 or a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh for a company or both.
- It is an offense to knowingly send/disclose information collected during enrolment/authentication to any unauthorized person or violate any agreement or arrangement under this Act. This offense may result in imprisonment of up to 3 years or a fine of up to Rs 10,000. This includes a fine of up to Rs 10,000/- for an individual or Rs 1 lakh for a company, or both.
- Unauthorized access to and hacking of the Central Identity Data Repository (CIDR) is a crime. According to UIDAI, in such cases, imprisonment of up to 10 years and a minimum fine of Rs 10 lakh has been fixed.
- Tampering with data in the central identity data repository is also a crime. The punishment for this offense is imprisonment up to 10 years and a fine up to Rs 10,000.
- It is also an offense to misuse a person’s identifying information by the requesting entity or the entity seeking offline verification. There is a provision of imprisonment up to 3 years or fine up to Rs 10,000/- in the case of an individual or fine up to Rs 1 lakh in the case of a company or both.
- Punishment for an offense for which no specific punishment is provided elsewhere. In such cases, the punishment includes imprisonment of up to 3 years or a fine of up to Rs 25,000 in the case of an individual, or a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh in the case of a company, or both.
