SIM cards will be invalid after Feb 2018 if not linked with Aadhaar

The Narendra Modi government will likely deactivate all the mobile numbers that are not linked with Aadhaar card after February 2018 to ensure that criminals, fraudsters and terrorists cannot use the issued SIMs.

The Supreme Court passed a notice early this year to make the Aadhaar-SIM linkage compulsory along with bank account and Permanent Account Number (PAN) with Aadhaar card.

All SIM cards will have to be verified with Aadhaar within a year from the date of judgement and all unlinked phone numbers to be deactivated after February next year to push criminals to have a hard time -- as biometrics cannot be stored by the mobile operators nor can they have access to any of the other personal data.

Biometrics gathered should be encrypted by the telecom companies and send to Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) at that moment. Storage of biometric by any phone connection provider is a serious criminal offence.