GUWAHATI: The Supreme Court on Thursday overturned a Punjab and Haryana High Court decision that used an Aadhaar card to determine the age of a road accident victim for compensation purposes.
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A bench comprising Justices Sanjay Karol and Ujjal Bhuyan ruled that the victim's age should instead be determined by the date of birth recorded in the school leaving certificate, as per Section 94 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
The court referred to a 2023 circular from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which, in line with a 2018 office memorandum from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, clarified that an Aadhaar card can confirm identity but is not valid as proof of date of birth.
The ruling came in response to an appeal filed by the family of a man who died in a road accident in 2015. The Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) in Rohtak had awarded the family ₹19.35 lakh in compensation, based on the victim’s age of 45 years as stated in his school leaving certificate.
However, the High Court reduced the compensation to ₹9.22 lakh, calculating the deceased's age as 47 years based on his Aadhaar card.
The Supreme Court upheld the MACT’s original judgment, agreeing with the appellants that the High Court had incorrectly relied on the Aadhaar card for age determination.