Around 81 lakh Aadhaar cards deactivated: Here’s how to check if yours is active

Time & Us
Last Updated: August 19, 2017 at 11:57 am

NEW DELHI: The Unique Identification Authority of India has deactivated close to 81 lakh Aadhaar numbers till date, Minister of State for Electronics and IT, P P Chaudhary said Friday last week.

“Till date, approximately 81 lakh Aadhaar numbers have been deactivated. The state-, year- and reason-wise data is not maintained by the UIDAI,” Chaudhary informed the Rajya Sabha.

The Aadhaar numbers were deactivated for a number of reasons which are stated in Section 27 and 28 of Aadhaar (Enrolment and Update) Regulations, 2016. “Prior to enactment of the Aadhaar Act, 2016, the deactivation (suspension) of Aadhaar numbers was done as per the Aadhaar Life Cycle Management (ALCM) guideline,” Chaudhary said.

He added that regional offices of UIDAI have authority to deactivate the Aadhaar numbers.
As per the provisions of Sections 27 and 28, a person’s Aadhaar can be cancelled or deactivated if multiple Aadhaars have been issued, or there are discrepancies in the biometric data or supporting documents.

It may be noted that children who enroll before the age of 5 years should update their biometrics once after attaining the age of 5 years and then again after turning 15 years of age. There’s a window of 2 years to carry out this update and failing to do so could lead to deactivation or cancellation of Aadhaar.

On the UIDAI website homepage, under the Aadhaar services tab, there’s an option saying ‘Verify Aadhaar Number’
Clicking ‘Verify Aadhaar Number’ will redirect you to a new page.

Enter your Aadhaar number, captcha and click verify. If the green checkmark appears, your Aadhaar is active.
If your Aadhaar is inactive, you need to visit the nearest enrolment centre along with the supporting documents.
You will be required to fill out the Aadhaar update form and your biometrics will be re-verified and updated. You need to pay a fee of Rs 25 at the enrolment centre for the update. Mentioning a valid mobile number would be mandatory during the process.

Since process to activate the Aadhaar requires your biometrics to be re-verified and updated in the UIDAI database, you need to pay a personal visit to the enrolment centre and this can’t be done online or by post. The officials at the Aadhaar enrolment centre will match your new biometrics with the biometrics previously recorded with that Aadhaar number and only if the two sets match then the updation will be done.