Months after the Centre promulgated an ordinance permitting restricted used of Aadhaar, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued an amended circular which allows banks to use the unique identification number for know-your-customer (KYC) verification.

“Banks have been allowed to carry out Aadhaar authentication/ offline-verification of an individual who voluntarily uses his Aadhaar number for identification purpose,” the central bank said in its amended Master Direction on KYC.

In February, the Union Cabinet had approved promulgation of an ordinance to allow voluntary use of the 12-digit unique number as identity proof for opening bank account and procuring mobile phone connection.

The ordinance was necessitated as a bill, passed by the Lok Sabha on January 4 but pending in the Rajya Sabha, would have lapsed with the dissolution of the current Lok Sabha. The ordinance gave effect to changes in the Aadhaar Act such as giving a child an option to exit from the biometric ID programme on attaining 18 years of age.

The RBI further said that ‘Proof of possession of Aadhaar number’ has been added to the list of Officially Valid Documents (OVD).