8.1 million Aadhaar numbers have been deactivated by the government. Here is how you can check if your Aadhaar is still active

The Aadhaar number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to Indian residents is becoming increasingly important. The government recently made it mandatory to mention the Aadhaar number, or at least the Aadhaar enrolment number, to file income tax returns. You are also expected to link your Permanent Account Number (PAN) with your Aadhaar. Hence it is critical to ensure that your Aadhaar is active.

Deactivated Aadhaar
The Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, in response to a question in the Rajya Sabha said on 11 August that till date about 8.1 million Aadhaar numbers have been deactivated. He further said that the guidelines for deactivation of Aadhaar are stated in sections 27 and 28 of the Aadhaar (Enrolment and Update) Regulations, 2016.

Section 27 specifies rules for cancellation of Aadhaar. The Aadhaar number of an Aadhaar number holder shall be cancelled if it is established that more than one Aadhaar numbers have been issued to the same person. In this case, the Aadhaar number assigned from the earlier enrolment shall be retained, and all subsequent Aadhaar numbers shall be cancelled.

Your Aadhaar can also get cancelled if the core biometric information was not captured during enrolment, or if the enrolment had been wrongly carried out as a ‘biometric exception’ case, or if an adult had been enrolled as a child below 5 years, to avoid capturing of biometric information or any other case where enrolment appears fraudulent to the Aadhaar authority. Upon cancellation, services that are provided by the authority to the Aadhaar number holder are discontinued.

Section 28 details the cases where Aadhaar would be deactivated. At the time of enrolment, if an existing photograph is used instead of capturing a fresh one, your Aadhaar can get deactivated. Also, if the authority finds at a later stage that enrolment had been carried out without valid supporting documents, the Aadhaar number can be deactivated till it is updated by the holder after furnishing valid supporting documents.

Aadhaar can also get deactivated if the system finds mixed or anomalous biometric information, multiple names in single name (using ‘urf’ or ‘alias’). Upon deactivation, services that are provided by the authority to the Aadhaar number holder are discontinued temporarily till Aadhaar holder updates or rectifies the information.

Checking for deactivation
It takes a few simple steps to verify if your Aadhaar is active. Visit the UIDAI portal uidai.gov.in and under the ‘Aadhaar Services’ tab on the home page, you will find the ‘Verify Aadhaar Number’ link. This will take you to a page where you will be asked to enter your Aadhaar number. If your Aadhaar is active, it will show a message displaying that your 12-digit Aadhaar number exists and it will also mention your age band, gender, state and mobile number. On the other hand, if a number does not exist, the message will say it does not exist. This means you will need to visit an Aadhaar enrolment or update centre to update the information that is missing.