As per July 2017 data, 128 crore sim cards was estimated to be in India and out of those about 33.8 crore cards have been linked with Aadhar. Now, with government making it clear that all the mobile numbers that have not been linked to Aadhaar by February next year will be deactivated. This number will soon go up. It has become mandatory now for all the mobile numbers to be linked to Aadhaar. According to reports, this is being done in line with Central government assurance given to Supreme Court in February that it would put in place, an effective mechanism for the verification of prepaid mobile users within a year.
While hearing a petition filed by the Lokiti Foundation, the top court in February 2017 had asked the government to re-verify the phone numbers of all mobile phone users within a year. At that time, Union government had responded to the court's order by saying that it would use Aadhaar number to establish a genuine owner of a SIM card.
The petitioner had contended that Know Your Customer (KYC) rules are not being properly followed by mobile operators and this loophole could be exploited by criminals, fraudsters and terrorists. Therefore, in March, the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) had issued a notice making it mandatory for all telecom subscribers to re-verify existing customers through the Aadhaar-based e-KYC process by February 6, 2018.
How to link mobile number with Aadhaar
Aadhaar card without mobile number
First case: You already have Aadhaar card but your mobile number is not registered. In this case, one has to get their mobile number registered with UIDAI and this can only be done via UIDAI centres. The staff would look for some basic documents like address proof, photo ID proof and age proof. In addition, they will use your biometric like thumb impression to process your request for linking of mobile number. Usually it take not more than 10 days to process the request. Once, you mobile number is linked, you can link your other mobile numbers to your Aadhaar through self-service website of UIDAI.
Linking more than one mobile number to a Aadhaar
Second case: One can re-verify all the numbers with Aadhar but only one number can be linked/registered to receive OTP for making changes and updation. To link a mobile number, the user will have to go to the self-service portal of UIDAI. After entering their details, they will receive an OTP on their existing mobile number. After feeding OTP number and entering the phone number that a person want to link, the request will be processed.
