UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) Issued New AAdhar Policy Rules 2022 on 30th November 2022. Policy for enforcing of Aadhaar (Enrolment and Update) Regulations 2016, process, standards, guidelines, data quality and containing corrupt/fraudulent practices (Version 4.1).
F.No. HQ-16024/2/2020-EU-I-HQ
Government of India
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
Unique Identification Authority of India
Dated: 30th November, 2022
Circular
Sub:-Policy for enforcing of Aadhaar (Enrolment and Update) Regulations 2016, process, standards, guidelines, data quality and containing corrupt/fraudulent practices (Version 4.1).
Download Aadhar Policy Rules 2022 in PDF
Ref: Circular F.No. HQ-16024/4/2020-EU-I-HQ dated 07.11.2022.
In supersession of the subject policy issued vide reference cited above, the revised policy approved by the Competent Authority is attached for compliance.
2. The policy will be effective from 1st December 2022 onwards and shall be implemented in the processing of Assistance to be paid to Registrar for the month of December 2022 onwards.
F. No. HQ-16024/2/2020-EU-I-HQ
Policy for enforcing of Aadhaar (Enrolment and Update) Regulations 2016, Processes, Standards, Guidelines, Data Quality and containing corrupt/ fraudulent practices.
(Version-4.1 dated 30.11.2022)
This policy is issued in supersession of the policy for enforcing of Aadhaar (Enrolment and Update) Regulations 2016, Processes, Standards, Guidelines, Data Quality and containing corrupt / fraudulent practices Version 3.0 issued vide Circular F No. HQ-16024/4/2020-EU-I dated 06 April and Version 4.0 issued vide Circular F. No. HQ-16024/2/2020-EU-I dated 07.11.2022 and shall be applicable with effect from 01.12.2022.
Appointment of Registrars/Enrolment Agencies and other Service Providers is governed by Chapter V (Regulation 21 to 26) of the Aadhaar (Enrolment and Update) Regulations 2016. Regulation 26 of the said Regulations deals with ‘Liability of Registrars, enrolling agencies and other Service Providers and action in case of default’ and is reproduced as follows:
Liability of Registrars, enrolling agencies and other Service Providers and action in case of default-
(1) Registrars, enrolling agencies, and other Service Providers, and the supervisors, operators or any other persons or agencies employed by them shall adhere to all regulations, processes, standards, guidelines, and orders issued by the Authority from time to time, and the code of conduct provided in Schedule V.
(2) The Authority shall monitor the enrolment activities of the Registrars, enrolling agencies and the operators, supervisors and other personnel associated with enrolment.
(3) Without prejudice to any other action which may be taken under the Act, for violation of any Regulation, process, standard, guideline or order, by a Registrar or Enrolment Agency or any service provider or any other person, the Authority may immediately suspend the activities of such a Registrar or Enrolment Agency or service provider or concerned person, and after holding due enquiry. It may take steps for imposition of financial disincentives on such a Registrar or Enrolment Agency or service provider or any other person and for cancellation of the credentials, codes and permissions issued to them pursuant to the Act or these regulations, or any other steps as may be specifically provided for in the terms of engagement with the Authority.”
3. In addition to above, UIDAI from time to time issues various SOPs/ guidelines/ directions etc. for implementation of above Regulations by the Registrars/ Enrolment Agencies/Service Providers etc. engaged in providing Aadhaar enrolment and update services to the Residents.
Imposition of financial disincentives and other administrative actions on the Registrars/Enrolment Agencies/Service Providers or any person/entity engaged in Aadhaar enrolment and update services in case of non-adherence to regulations, processes, standards, guidelines and orders stands revised as follows:
UIDAI performs various validations & quality checks once the enrollment packet is uploaded to CIDR by Registrar/Enrolment agency. During these processes erroneous packets gets rejected. UIDAI also receives resident feedback/grievances through various channels regarding overcharging of residents for enrolment/update. UIDAI has started taking feedback from enrolled resident by calling/contacting them about their experience during their Aadhaar enrolment / update. Following are the broad objectives and actions proposed for Enforcing of Aadhaar (Enrolment and Update) Regulations 2016, processes, standards, guidelines, Data Quality and containing corrupt / fraudulent practices. To ensure that the interests of the UIDAI and the resident are protected, poor data quality and deviations from process norms (herein after called deficiencies) are dis-incentivized. Equally, the disincentives imposed must seek to serve as a deterrent and provide an opportunity for improvement, but must not become an unsustainable liability for the enrolment partners.
i. Specific deficiencies shall attract financial disincentives and administrative actions whereas performance based periodic review attract administrative action if overall performance is poor for the period under review.
All the transactions during the previous month, irrespective of enrolment for new Aadhaar or update shall be considered for assessing the deficiencies. All the errors committed by an operator during a month under different heads to be counted and the action shall be initiated as per the total count of errors during the month.
Tech Operations to notify the operators who were found exceeded the threshold limit fixed for disassociation of operator ID, on the day of report generation and the operators should be disassociated from backend on the next day to avoid chance for more rejection of packets created by such operators and inconvenience to the residents.
In case of grave error as detailed in the following tables, UIDAI (RO/Tech Centre) shall dissociate the operator and inform the Registrar for taking appropriate action.
Registrar should suspend the operator within 15 days, and inform RO about the action taken on the operator. Failing which suspension will be carried out by UIDAI RO.
In case of operational errors committed at the time of enrolment, as detailed in the below table, UIDAI (RO/Tech Centre) shall disassociate the Operator and inform the Registrar for taking appropriate action. Registrar to take appropriate decision about suspension/ retraining / reactivation of the operator.
In case the operator/supervisor is an employee of the Registrar (Banks, post offices and state governments), instead of suspension of operator/supervisor, Registrar may take departmental action and the action may be intimated to concerned RO.
Operators crossing the threshold and dis-associated by Tech operations division in the backend shall be permitted to re-onboard after completing re- training.
On receipt of intimation from the RO, concerned Registrar to initiate appropriate action on the operator/supervisor based on the criteria mentioned as per this policy and an action taken report to be furnished within 30 days, failing which an additional penalty of Rs. 1 Lakh or 5 times of the financial disincentive as per the policy (whichever is lower) can be imposed on recommendation of Standard Reconciliation Committee (SRC) reports furnished by Regional Office (RO).
The financial dis-incentive shall be imposed at the time of calculating assistance, based on the deficiency report furnished by Tech Operations Division and Standard Reconciliation Committee (SRC) reports furnished by ROs.
Consequent to reduction in new enrolments, restrictions imposed for conducting new enrolments at designated centres and changes in MBU policy, there can be reduction in the assistance paid by UIDAI to the Registrars. However considering the increased demand for update and new policies, the major part of the overall income of Registrar shall be fee collected from residents. Accordingly, to reflect the scenario in response to the changes, the present capping of 10% of the total amount payable to Registrar/EA combination during the month shall be changed to 10% of the notional income (assistance from UIDAI plus fee collected from resident on successful update).
Considering the UIDAI policy of 0% tolerance against corruption, the penalty on corruption shall be applied over and above the penalty to be imposed as per deficiency report. The financial disincentive on corruption to be imposed only as per recommendation of SRC report submitted by RO, including on OBD survey cases.
UIDAI, while making payment of assistance to Registrars will deduct the amount on account of financial disincentives. All the transactions during the previous month, irrespective of enrolment for new Aadhaar or update shall be considered for assessing the deficiencies.
UIDAI now permits Registrars for update only and considering proposed reduction in number of new enrolments, it may not be possible to deduct the financial dis-incentive including penalty on corruption from some of the Registrars. Hence if amount of total penalty is more than the Assistance due from UIDAI, during the month, Registrar to deposit the outstanding penalty amount to UIDAI within 30 days of receiving the demand notice. In case the Registrar fails to make the payment within 60 days of issuing the notice, the Registrar shall be suspended from carrying out enrolment/update activity till all the dues in this regard are cleared.
Considering the issues raised by the enrolment ecosystem in increase in the number of DOE-I error during implementation of version 3 policy, it is decided to specify the documents to be considered as fraudulent during the QC process and the list of scenarios for considering the errors as DOE-1 or DOE-2 during QC analysis, is attached as annexure 1 with the policy for better understanding of all the end-users of the eco-system.
In case of any dispute on the financial disincentive imposed on the Registrar, the concerned Registrar may raise the same in the next SRC meeting and action shall be taken based on the decision of the SRC Committee. In case any operators found suspended/recommended to suspend wrongly, concerned RO can review the case and revoke the suspension with approval of DDG RO. Any operators deactivated/suspended under this policy or the previous policies can be re on-boarded with RO recommendation, only after completing re-training.
In addition to the financial dis-incentive imposed on the QC vendor for wrong rejection or acceptance, QC operators doing more than 5 wrong acceptance/rejections in a month shall also be disassociated for re-training.
Various deficiencies & financial disincentives /administrative actions are depicted in below table:-
Notes:
1. All new Enrolment and Update packets shall be considered for assigning & calculating deficiency.
2. Capping on penalty - The overall financial disincentive on account of deficiencies other than corruption charges shall be as follows:
i. To be capped at 10% of notional income of Registrar (assistance from UIDAI plus fee collected from resident on successful update).
ii. No capping shall be applicable for penalty on corruption.
iii. Penalty on corruption to be imposed only as per recommendation of SRC report.
iv. If Amount of total penalty is more than the Assistance due from UIDAI, during the month, Registrar to deposit the outstanding penalty amount to UIDAI within 30 days of receiving the demand notice, else the same shall be deducted from future payments.
v. In case the Registrar fails to make the payment within 60 days of issuing the notice, the Registrar shall be suspended from carrying out enrolment/update activity till all the dues in this regard are cleared.
5. Review of Registrar/EA based on adherence of process guidelines:
The EA is required to ensure compliance to processes prescribed by the UIDAI. Non-compliance would attract appropriate action against the agency as per various provisions of the Aadhaar Act as amended from time to time including action under Section 33A of the Act.
Activities deemed as non-compliant are listed below. This list is indicative and not exhaustive.
Enrolling residents using unregistered enrolment stations or tampered software Sending spurious files to CIDR as enrolment packets Not complying with the enforcement of disassociation/suspension Engaging in activity that is against the process, policy and guidelines of UIDAI.
Failure to conduct inspections and non-compliance Non compliance of repeated directions to rectify the defects noticed during inspection.
The review pertaining to adherence to process guidelines could take place either during the periodic review or as a result of complaints received from time to time. Based on the severity and/ or recurrence of such complaints, appropriate action would be taken against the Registrar/EA.
Notwithstanding the provisions made above, UIDAI reserves the right to take exemplary action against Registrar/EAs in case the nature of error/ non-compliance is of great severity.
6. Review of Operator performance based on soft skills:
The Operator is the individual who would interact with the resident. Hence appropriate interaction of the Operator with the resident is imperative. Departure from this norm could attract action against the Operator.
Actions deemed as inappropriate are listed below. This list is indicative and not exhaustive.
Rude behavior or physical/ verbal abuse to the resident Charging money from the resident or promoting touts etc
Miscommunication to residents with missing biometrics, stating that they cannot be enrolled Misguiding the resident in any manner that is contrary to the stated guidelines and procedures of UIDAI
The review of Soft Skills would take place during the monthly review or as a result of complaints received from time to time. Based on the severity and/ or recurrence of such complaints, appropriate action would be taken against the Operator.
Notwithstanding the provisions made above, UIDAI reserves the right to take exemplary action against an Operator/ supervisor in case the nature of error/ non-compliance is of great severity.
7. Objection or request for correction by respective Registrars and EAs:
The Registrars / Enrolment agencies will be given opportunity for objection or request for correction to SRC committee decisions at respective Regional Offices as per Registrar/RO mapping. The Registrars are mapped with the UIDAI Regional Office, in whose jurisdiction Registrar’s head quarter is located.
In case the Registrar has any objection on the decision taken by the RO, can furnish appeal to DDG (E&U) for remedy.
8. The responsibility matrix for enforcement of financial . disincentive and administrative action shall be as follows:
