Aadhaar document invalid as proof of age, says Supreme Court

He Supreme Court on Thursday set aside a Punjab and Haryana High Court order accepting Aadhaar details to determine the age of a road accident victim with a view to awarding compensation to their families, reported Living law. The court said those details could best be determined using a school completion certificate.

The bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and Ujjal Bhuyan issued the order after hearing an appeal filed by the relatives of a man who died in a road accident in 2015, PTI reported. After the man’s death, the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal awarded Rs 19,35,400 to his family as compensation.

However, the High Court later held that the court had wrongly applied the age multiplier in determining the compensation and reduced the amount to Rs 9,22,336.

The age multiplier for compensation under the Motor Vehicle Act is based on the age of the victim or claimant.

As per law, the High Court found the man’s age to be 47 years using his Aadhaar card details and applied a multiplier of 13, according to living law.

However, the appellants appealed to the Supreme Court against the order, arguing that the man’s age at the time of the accident was 45 years, so a multiplier of 14 would be applied when awarding compensation.

They presented the victim’s school leaving certificate as proof that her age was incorrectly recorded in her Aadhaar card.

In its order on Thursday, the court cited a circular of the Unique Identification Authority of India in 2023, which said that an Aadhaar card was meant to establish identity and could not serve as proof of date of birth. The authority is the statutory body that issues Aadhaar numbers.

“That being the situation, as it stands with respect to determination of age, we have no hesitation in accepting the argument of the plaintiffs-appellants, based on the School Leaving Certificate,” the court said in its order.

It also said that the man’s age had to be determined from the date of birth mentioned in the school leaving certificate under Section 94 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. This section describes the process to determine the age of the person.

The court said no error was found in the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal’s determination of the man’s age based on his school leaving certificate.

“Appeals are allowed, the total amount i.e. Rs. 14,41,500/- for the sake of fair compensation is rounded up to Rs. 15,000,000/- with interest at 8% from the date of filing of the petition of claim to be delivered to the legitimate claimants in the manner indicated by the Court,” the court said.