Aadhaar card not valid document to determine age: Supreme Court
A bench comprising Justices Sanjay Karol and Ujjal Bhuyan said the age of the deceased person had to be determined from the date of birth mentioned in the school leaving certificate.
The Supreme Court overturned a decision by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which had previously accepted an Aadhaar card as a valid document to determine the age of a road accident victim in order to grant compensation. The court ruled that the victim's age had to be determined based on the date of birth mentioned in his school leaving certificate under Section 94 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
The bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and Ujjal Bhuyan cited a circular from the Unique Identification Authority of India, dated December 20, 2018, which stated that while an Aadhaar card can establish identity, it is not a proof of date of birth. The court agreed with the claimants who argued that the age should be calculated based on the school leaving certificate, and upheld the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal's judgment that granted compensation based on the victim's age as per the school certificate.
The victim had died in a road accident in 2015, and the initial compensation of ₹19.35 lakh was later reduced to ₹9.22 lakh by the High Court after it found that the MACT had incorrectly applied an age multiplier when determining the compensation.
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