A new circular has been issued by the IRDAI (The Insurance and Regulatory Authority of India) which states that it is now mandatory for the insurance providers to link Aadhaar card with every single individual policy.
This circular has been sent to all the insurance companies where the Central Government made Aadhaar and PAN / Form 60 mandatory to avail services related to finance.
The process to finish the linkage has been directed as well, where the process to link Aadhaar to the insurance policies would be same as the one adopted by the bank. This means that the insurers would be able to link the two documents either through the text messages, online or by visiting the branch.
Earlier this month Supreme Court heard a plea which challenges the constitutional validity of Aadhaar Act and it also pondered over the question of privacy it raises surrounding the 12 digit unique identification number.
On the hearing SC refused to pass an interim stay on linking of Aadhaar with mobile numbers and bank accounts and ask the telecom service providers to let this issue to be decided on by the constitutional bench only.
Supreme court have also asked the service providers not to send SMS alerts to the customers stating that in case of incomplete linkage, the customers will be exempted from the service. Also bank accounts will be making inoperational, as this creates a fuss among the citizens.
Government has also fixed a deadline to complete the linkage. Earlier the deadline for linking PAN with Aadhaar was July 31st but was extended to August 31 and later to December 31, 2017. And again the government has extended the deadline for the same for three more months i.e. March 31st 2017. And this is the third extension given by the government to individuals to complete the linkage.
Highlights
- Regulator have mandated linking all your insurance policies to Aadhaar and PAN
- In a recent hearing Supreme Court asked banks not to spread panic amongst the citizens by sending them SMS alerts regarding the deadline of the linkage
To know more about the hearing, read https://rupeenomics.com/linking-of-aadhaar-with-mobile-and-bank-ac