Aadhaar Card not suitable as proof of date of birth: Supreme Court

Srinagar, Oct 24: The Supreme Court (SC) today set aside a High Court's decision to accept the date of birth mentioned in the Aadhaar Card to determine the age of the victim in a motor accident compensation case.

The bench comprising Justices Sanjay Karol and Ujjal Bhuyan was not inclined to accept the suitability of the Aadhaar Card as proof of age.

The Court as per livelaw.in observed that instead of referring to the date of birth mentioned in the Aadhaar Card for determining the age of the deceased, the age of the deceased can be more authoritatively determined from the date of birth mentioned in the school leave certificate having statutory recognition under Section 94 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.

It was the case where the compensation of Rs.19,35,400/- decided by the Motor Accidents Claim Tribunal (MACT) was reduced to Rs.9,22,336/- by the High Court upon noting that the MACT had wrongly applied the age multiplier while determining the compensation to deceased LRs. The High Court upon relying on the date of birth mentioned in the deceased Aadhar Card, calculated his age as 47 years and applied the multiplier of 13.

The appellants/ Legal Representatives challenged the High Court's decision contending that the High Court erred in referring to the Aadhar Card to calculate the deceased age. They referred to the deceased's School Leave Certificate to contend that his age at the time of the incident was 45 years and accordingly multiplier of 14 would apply.

Finding force in the appellant's contention, the judgment authored by Justice Karol discussed various High Court decisions on the point of whether an Aadhar Card can serve as proof of age.