The Supreme Court Thursday held that an Aadhaar card, which may be used to prove identity, cannot be regarded as per se proof of date of birth.
The bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and Ujjal Bhuyan was dealing with an appeal filed by legal representatives of a deceased victim in a road accident challenging reduction in award amount. The award amount was reduced by the impugned order merely on observing the multiplier applicable would be 13, since the victim was aged 47 at the time of death, as per the record of Aadhaar card.
It was the contention of the claimant-appellants that the multiplier applicable would be 14 since the School Leaving Certificate accepted the date of birth of the deceased to be October 1970, and he was at the age of 45 years when the accident occurred.
Applying the contentions made, SC framed the legal question of which of the two is to be taken authoritative in case of conflict of the dates of birth between the School Leaving Certificate and the Aadhar Card. It observed that a School Leaving Certificate has been accorded statutory recognition under Section 94 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
"The Unique Identification Authority of India, in respect to its Circular No. 08 of 2023, has announced, as reinforced by an Office Memorandum issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology dated 20th December, 2018, that Aadhar Card, although it may support the identity, is not per se date of birth proof," it said.
After referring to a few judgments of various high courts, the Supreme Court held that it has "no hesitation" in accepting the age calculation of the deceased based on the School Leaving Certificate.
Accepting the appeal, the SC directed that the "total amount, i.e., Rs 14,41,500, in the interest of just compensation is rounded off to Rs 15,00,000 with 8 per cent interest from the date of filing of the claim petition to be released to the rightful claimants in the manner directed by the Tribunal."
