Aadhaar card not valid for age verification, rules Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has overturned a decision by the Punjab and Haryana High Court that accepted Aadhaar details to determine the age of a road accident victim for compensation purposes. 

A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and Ujjal Bhuyan stated that the age of the deceased should be based on the date of birth shown in the school leaving certificate, as outlined in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. 

a certificate of identity, not of age

The court highlighted that the Unique Identification Authority of India clarified that an Aadhaar card can establish identity but is not definitive proof of date of birth. 

The Supreme Court agreed with the claims of the victim's family and upheld the decision of the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT), which used the school leaving certificate to determine the victim’s age. 

The case involved the family of a man who died in a road accident in 2015. The MACT in Rohtak initially awarded Rs 19.35 lakh in compensation, but the High Court reduced this to Rs 9.22 lakh, stating that the MACT had incorrectly applied the age multiplier for the compensation calculation. The High Court had relied on the Aadhaar card, which indicated the victim was 47 years old, while the family argued that his correct age, according to his school records, was 45 at the time of his death.