Aadhaar invalid document as proof of age, says Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Thursday quashed an order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court that accepted Aadhaar data to determine the age of a road traffic victim to provide compensation to their families, the Supreme Court said. Live the law. The court said such details can be better ascertained through a school-leaving certificate.

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

However, the Supreme Court subsequently ruled that the tribunal had wrongly applied the age multiplier while assessing damages and reduced the amount to Rs 9,22,336.

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

Under the law, the Supreme Court, using the data on his Aadhaar card, fixed the man’s age at 47 years and applied a multiplication factor of 13. Live the law.

However, the appellants moved the High Court against the order saying that the man’s age at the time of the accident was 45 years, so a multiplier of 14 would be applicable while awarding damages.

They submitted the victim’s school diploma as proof that his age was incorrectly stated on his Aadhaar card.

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

“This being the position as it stands with regard to the determination of age, we have no hesitation in accepting the contention of the plaintiff-appellants based on the School Leaving Certificate,” the court said in its order .

It also said that the age of the man was to be determined from the date of birth mentioned on the final certificate under Section 94 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. This section describes the process described for a person’s age.

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

“The appeals are allowed, the total amount i.e. Rs 14,41,500 being rounded to Rs 15,00,000/- with 8% interest from the date of filing of claim petition for release in the interest of just compensation to the rights holders in the manner prescribed by the Tribunal,” the court said.