Central Registrar: Voluntary Aadhaar authentication authorised

The Ministry of Cooperation has authorised voluntary Aadhaar authentication for specified identity checks by the Office of the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies, while prohibiting denial of services to Aadhaar holders who refuse or cannot undergo it. Notification S.O. 5793(E), dated 23 October 2026, took effect on its publication in the Gazette of India on 27 October 2026.

The notification covers identity checks during society registration, changes to bye-laws, member-detail updates and society elections, as well as specified administrative work. It requires informed consent and directs the ministry to inform Aadhaar holders about alternative, viable means of identification.

The authorisation is for the Central Registrar’s office and the uses listed in the notification. It is not a direction making Aadhaar authentication compulsory across cooperative societies.

Whose identity can be checked

The ministry’s notification identifies three groups for whom the Central Registrar’s office may perform authentication, with a defined purpose for each.

Promoters and members of boards of directors may be authenticated when a cooperative society is registered, when its bye-laws are amended and for related services. Bye-laws are the society’s internal governing rules.

Members of cooperative societies may be authenticated for registration, updates to their details and at the time of society elections. The notification separately permits identity checks for Central Registrar officials and other service providers for administrative purposes.

The ministry states that these checks are intended to prevent impersonation, duplication and fraudulent activities, and to ensure accuracy and integrity. Those are the stated objectives of the authorisation; the notification does not report results from its implementation.

The institutional scope matters. According to the Ministry of Cooperation’s description of the Central Registrar’s office, societies whose objects are confined to one state are governed by that state’s cooperative laws. Societies whose objects extend beyond one state fall under the Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act, 2002.

The ministry identifies the Central Registrar as the statutory authority responsible for registration and other processes involving multi-state cooperative societies. The notification therefore concerns identity checks within that office’s specified processes, rather than replacing the separate administration of state cooperative laws.

Consent and alternatives to Aadhaar

The notification’s consent requirement applies to the use of Aadhaar for authentication. The ministry must obtain the Aadhaar number holder’s informed consent before using it for that purpose.

This follows the principle in Section 4(3) of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016. The Act states that voluntary use of Aadhaar through authentication means use only with the holder’s informed consent.

The notification also requires more than simply describing authentication as optional. It directs the ministry to inform the holder about alternative identification methods and not deny a service because the person refuses, or is unable, to undergo Aadhaar authentication. The protection expressly covers both a decision not to use the method and an inability to complete it.

The alternatives listed by the ministry are a bank or post-office passbook with a photograph, a Permanent Account Number (PAN) card, a Kisan Credit Card, a passport, a ration card, a voter identity card, a Kisan Photo Passbook and a driving licence. The notification also allows any other document that the ministry may specify.

These provisions preserve an alternative route for establishing identity. They do not remove identity checks from the covered processes: the notification pairs voluntary Aadhaar use with other viable means of identification.

How the authorisation works

Under Section 2(c) of the Aadhaar Act, authentication involves submitting an Aadhaar number together with demographic or biometric information to the Central Identities Data Repository for verification against its records. It is therefore a verification process, not merely the presentation of an Aadhaar document.

The ministry’s notification permits Yes/No authentication, e-KYC, or both. E-KYC means electronic know-your-customer verification. The notification does not assign a particular facility to each category of person or each service.

The legal basis cited is Rule 5 of the Aadhaar Authentication for Good Governance (Social Welfare, Innovation, Knowledge) Rules, 2020, read with Section 4(4)(b)(ii) of the Aadhaar Act. That statutory provision, reproduced in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s application guidelines, concerns authentication for purposes prescribed by the Central Government in consultation with the Unique Identification Authority of India, or UIDAI, and in the interest of the State.

The rules set out a proposal-and-approval process. Rule 4 requires a proposal explaining the purpose for which authentication is sought. Under Rule 5, UIDAI examines whether the proposal fits the permitted purposes and the Act. It then informs the Central Government if the requesting entity may be allowed to authenticate, after which the relevant ministry or department may be authorised to issue a notification.

For this authorisation, the Ministry of Cooperation’s notification records that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology gave permission through a letter dated 1 October 2026, after consultation with UIDAI. The stated purposes are the use of digital platforms for good governance and improving residents’ access to services.

The permission letter, the notification’s date and its commencement are distinct steps. The notification makes Gazette publication the trigger for legal effect; it does not provide a separate operational rollout schedule or describe how alternative identification documents will be submitted in each covered process.