Ahmedabad Times

Sarma mentioned that now, no extra Aadhaar playing cards might be authorized for adults on the district stage in Assam. “If in any respect, there’s some real particular person, then the Deputy Commissioner will ship a proposal and the federal government will approve. However on the DC stage, no extra Aadhaar playing cards might be issued to a citizen greater than 18 years of age.”

Alok Prasanna Kumar, co-founder of the Vidhi Centre for Authorized Coverage, says: “The state authorities has no authorized energy to cease Aadhaar enrolment. At finest, a state can request the Central authorities to ask the UIDAI to do the identical.”

Prasanna Kumar provides that the state authorities as such will not be concerned within the subject of Aadhaar playing cards, with an individual making use of on to the UIDAI, biometrics processed centrally, and the UIDAI issuing the cardboard.

Usha Ramanathan, an activist who has written extensively on the Aadhaar framework, additionally says that Assam’s actions look like “a easy usurpation of energy… a brazen assertion of defiance of the regulation”.

The Aadhaar pointers

Part 3(1) of the UIDAI Act gives that each resident shall be entitled to acquire an Aadhaar quantity by submitting demographic and biometric data by way of the enrolment course of. “Resident” is outlined as “a person who has resided in India for a interval or durations amounting in all to at least one hundred and eighty-two days or extra within the twelve months instantly previous the date of utility for enrolment.” There isn’t any age restrict outlined for Aadhaar enrolment, with even a new child entitled to take action.

The proviso to Part 3(1) offers solely the Central authorities the ability to inform any extra class of people who could also be entitled.

Part 9 of the Act states that the Aadhaar quantity shall not by itself “confer any proper of, or be proof of, citizenship or domicile”. The choice to make use of Aadhaar enrolment as a test on immigration subsequently has to deal with the Act’s personal framing of what Aadhaar is and isn’t.

Sources within the Central authorities argue that grownup enrolments already require approval by the state – and Assam’s “infiltration” logic is only a spin on it. In case of any 18-plus particular person making use of for Aadhaar, as per these officers, the UIDAI accepts the documentation however proceeds solely after the respective state governments approve its subject, after verification.

An Assam authorities official additionally argues this, saying a protocol of verification on the district stage for Aadhaar playing cards was already in place, particularly after it introduced a Cupboard resolution in August 2025 requiring a district collector clearance for all grownup enrolment from October 1.

“Whereas until about 2021, the goal was to extend Aadhaar protection, after that state governments got the duty to implement checks. So in each state, purposes taken in Aadhaar centres are routed to the state and, from there, to districts to confirm if the applicant resides within the explicit district,” mentioned the official.

Nevertheless, whereas the UIDAI’s enrolment course of does state that purposes could also be verified by way of state authorities, there isn’t any provision for district-level clearance for first-time Aadhaar enrolment of all candidates above 18.

As per Prasanna Kumar, any extra verification by the state will not be allowed by the UIDAI laws. “Even when the state doesn’t reply, the statute offers you a proper. The one authentic grounds for refusal are that an individual will not be a resident or is committing fraud. If somebody is a resident with legitimate paperwork, Assam or another state for that matter can’t block the difficulty (of Aadhaar).”

Ramanathan provides that as a “registrar”, a state authorities is there to facilitate enrolment, and guarantee it’s transmitted to the UIDAI. “Nobody can ask for something aside from the data the UIDAI requires for enrolment,” she says.

She provides that in Assam, the worry is that “not solely those that should not residents won’t be allowed to enrol…, those that should not allowed to enrol might be denied citizenship, until the federal government of the day decides in any other case.”

Court docket interpretation

The Supreme Court docket has thought-about the intersection of Aadhaar and Assam authorities orders earlier. In 2022, a Bench issued a discover to the Union Authorities, UIDAI and Assam on a petition arguing that the Aadhaar Act comprises no bar on issuing Aadhaar to any class of residents, and that denial on the idea of NRC (Nationwide Register of Residents) standing creates a category inside a category in violation of Article 14. These issues stay pending.

Final month, the Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi disposed of a PIL looking for to limit contemporary Aadhaar enrolment to kids under the age of 6 years, on the bottom that the system was being misused by unlawful infiltrators. The Court docket declined to entertain this, saying these are coverage issues inside the Govt sphere.

The numbers

Primarily based on the UIDAI’s state-wise knowledge as of Might 31, 2026, Assam has an estimated Aadhaar penetration of 91.46%, with about 3.36 crore dwell Aadhaar holders towards a projected inhabitants of three.67 crore. That is under the nationwide common of 94.43%.

The UIDAI notes that these figures are primarily based on the present handle recorded in Aadhaar and don’t essentially mirror domicile, which means the determine doesn’t by itself point out what number of Aadhaar holders are initially from that state.

(with inputs from Sukrita Baruah, Guwahati)