Aadhaar card not valid document to determine age: Supreme Court
New Delhi, Oct 24: The Supreme Court on Thursday set aside an order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court which had accepted Aadhaar card for determining the age of a road accident victim to grant compensation.
A bench comprising Justices Sanjay Karol and Ujjal Bhuyan, therefore, said the age of the deceased had to be determined from the date of birth mentioned in the school leaving certificate under Section 94 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
"We find that the Unique Identification Authority of India, by way of its circular number 8 of 2023, has stated, in reference to an office memorandum issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology dated December 20, 2018, that an Aadhaar Card, while can be used to establish identity, is not per se proof of date of birth," noted the bench.
When it came to determining the age, the top court accepted the contention of the claimant-appellants before it and upheld the judgment of the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) which calculated the deceased's age on the basis of his school leaving certificate.
The top court was hearing an appeal filed by kin of a man who died in a road accident in 2015.
MACT, Rohtak awarded a compensation of Rs 19.35 lakh which was reduced to Rs 9.22 lakh by the high court after noting the MACT had wrongly applied the age multiplier while determining the compensation.
The high court had relied on the deceased's Aadhaar card to calculate his age as 47 years.
The family contended the high court erred in determining the deceased's age on the basis of the Aadhaar card as his age, if calculated as per his school leave certificate, was 45 years at the time of death.
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Eleven cadres of several banned outfits in Manipur held
Imphal (PTI): Eleven people belonging to various banned outfits were arrested from Manipur's Imphal East, Kakching, and Thoubal districts, police said on Tuesday.
All these arrests were made on Monday, a senior officer said.
Four cadres of the proscribed Kangleipak Communist Party (PWG) were apprehended from Mantripukhri French Colony in Imphal East district, he said.
They were involved in "threatening the general public by placing hand grenades at different locations in the valley area", a police statement said.
Two pistols with two magazines and ammunition were recovered from their possession.
In a separate operation, security forces also arrested three active members of the same outfit from Keirao Wangkhem and its adjoining area in Imphal East district, the officer said.
Five firearms, ammunition and a wireless communication device were seized from their possession, he said.
A member of the proscribed Peoples Liberation Army was arrested from Sawombung Kabui Khunjao in Imphal East district for allegedly being involved in extortion activities, police said.
"Two pistols, one hand grenade and a detonator were recovered from his possession," the officer said.
Two active cadres of the banned KCP (Apunba) were arrested from an abandoned house in Wangjing Awang Leikai in Thoubal district, as they were involved in extortion, a local police officer said.
The police apprehended a cadre of the outlawed KCP (Taibanganba) from Angang Ching crossing in Kakching district, he said.
Security forces have been conducting search operations in Manipur since ethnic violence broke out two years ago.
More than 260 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic violence between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo groups since May 2023.
The Centre had on February 13 imposed the President's rule in Manipur after Chief Minister N Biren Singh resigned.
The state assembly, which has a tenure till 2027, has been put under suspended animation.
